Poll shows voters receptive to rail plan

Should Jackson County put a sales tax on the ballot for the Kansas City Regional Rapid Rail plan, polling suggests voters are receptive to the idea, a consultant told advocates Wednesday night.

“I think people are ready to embrace this,” Mike Zuhl, government and public affairs director for R&R Partners, said at a gathering in Blue Springs of the Jackson County Regional Rail Coalition. R&R works for the Kansas City Transit Alliance, one of the area groups generally supporting the regional rapid rail idea.

Local officials are some distance from deciding whether to go to the voters. Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders laid out the $1.1 billion Regional Rapid Rail plan in 2009. Officials should determine by late spring whether that plan or alternatives such as more buses or more lanes of highways will be emphasized in seeking federal money for major transit improvements.

The Regional Rapid Rail plan consists of six lines, using mostly existing tracks and converging at Union Station. One of the lines would use the Kansas City Southern line that comes through Independence, Blue Springs and Grain Valley. The first three lines to be built would be in Jackson County, and at this point officials are just talking about a sales tax in Jackson County. Other lines would go to the airport, the Legends area in Kansas City, Kan., and the Liberty/Kearney area.

Still, groups such as the Jackson County Regional Rail Coalition have been meeting to kick around ideas on how to build public support for a rail plan.

“I think this coalition is the most important thing you do to be successful in a ballot measure,” Zuhl said.

R&R, which has worked with leaders in other cities that have similar plans, surveyed likely voters across Jackson County in mid-December. Zuhl did not give specific figures but walked through the findings generally. The questions included:

• How bad do you think traffic congestion is? About half said bad or very bad, and that was more pronounced in Eastern Jackson County.
   
• What’s the best solution? More than half chose regional rail, followed by wider roads and more buses.
   
• What have you heard about a regional rail system? More than half knew at least something about it. Zuhl called that encouraging.
   
• What if a 1-cent sales tax for regional rail was on the ballot? Almost half favored the idea, and that rose to about two-to-one support if the question included details such as streetcars in Kansas City – those plans also are being discussed – bus service and overall improved access for the elderly and the disabled. That support is about the same for either a half-cent or one-cent tax.
   
• Why do people support the idea? It would create jobs – both construction jobs and ongoing jobs. Convenience also scored highly.

The meeting drew about 35 people, including officials of Blue Springs and Jackson County as well as citizens who have favored rail plans. It included a general discussion of questions to research and ways to present the issue to public.

Suggested selling points included the increase in value properties along rapid rail lines, improvements in the area’s quality of life and – in a wired and connected world – how much commute time can become productive work time.

“‘Convenience’ to me is the big word,” said Blue Springs City Council Member Dale Carter.

Other ideas:

• Shouldn’t we stress to people how much they would save in parking and car maintenance, let alone the savings if a family could get by with one car instead of two? Those savings start at around $1,200 a year, said Brian Rasmussen, business development director of R&R.

• What are the risks of going to the voters in November, when the ballot will be long, with a presidential election, a Senate race in Missouri, other elective office and statewide ballot initiatives.

  “If we’re to face the voters in November, that’s certainly a factor,” Zuhl said.

• Hiking and biking trails would be built alongside the rail lines, and the line through Raytown and Lee’s Summit would use the old unused Rock Island line. That potentially hooks into the Katy Trail, and getting that extended to Kansas City has long been a dream of trail enthusiasts, one of whom suggested getting that community on board to support regional rail.