TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! KANSAS CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE CLAY CHASTAIN SHARES CAMPAIGN MANIFESTO!!!

TKC NOTE: I'm not sure any other contender for office is calling their campaign literature a "manifesto" but that's what we like about this longtime Kansas City transit activist, he's not afraid to challenge the status quo and maybe even scare people a little bit.

Take a look:


Mayoral candidate Chastain outlines campaign manifesto

Kansas City Mayoral Candidate Clay Chastain will begin presenting his campaign manifesto (addressing one major issue every two weeks) involving his position on the following issues Chastain believes Kansas City's future hinges on:

#1. How can we make Kansas City a safer city in which to live.

#2. Should we build a new single terminal airport or work with what we have.

#3. How can we resolve the Kemper Arena stalemate to everyone's satisfaction.

#4. Should we renew or eliminate the e-tax.

#5. How do we create more jobs and less disparity in Kansas City.

#6. What kind of regional transit system would best serve the city.

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Today, Chastain addresses ISSUE #6...building a new regional transit system:

With crime high, jobs low, and the city burdened with a wasteful and ineffective bus-based transit system the time is nigh for a sweeping innovative measure to accelerate Kansas City out of the economic and transit doldrums and toward a new frontier of greater growth, prosperity, and transit success.

If elected mayor, Chastain will seek to build the ENTIRE city a new light rail-based comprehensive utilitarian regional transit system WITHOUT any net increase in taxes.

To do this Mayor Chastain will ask the new city council to eliminate one tax while simultaneously re-purposing another.

Specifically, Chastain will ask the council to cancel the city's 2.2 mile Main Street Streetcar project by repealing the streetcar's transportation taxing district which was approved by a scant number of voters in a restricted election.

Concurrently, Mayor Chastain will also ask the new city council to repeal the ATA's 3/8-cent sales tax which currently helps fund the bus system. As aside: That tax has been used for 12 years by the ATA even though the ATA sold it to the public in 2003 as a temporary 5-year tax to, "get our house in order."


In their stead, Mayor Chastain will ask the new city council to place before citywide voters on November 3, 2015 Project Wellspring... a light rail-based regional transit plan designed to be the catalyst around which we can improve transit as well as grow and prosper Kansas City.

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Here is the general plan and ballot language constituting Project Wellspring:

In order to establish light rail as the correct foundation of a comprehensive regional transit system, construct the first phase of such a system, and to increase ridership on the city's bus system, shall the City of Kansas City, Missouri impose a 3/8-cent sales tax for 25 years, beginning in 2016, for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, and operating the following improvements to the city's public transportation infrastructure:

* Construct a light rail train spine of approximately 16 miles operating from the new Cerner Redevelopment at Bannister to a major Park & Ride lot in the central northland including station stops at the KC Zoo, Troost Avenue, the Plaza, Union Station, Downtown, and NKC with quiet, low-emission express buses providing direct connecting service to the terminals at Kansas City International Airport;

* Construct a suburban commuter train line of approximately 24 miles (feeding into the light rail system at Union Station) and operating from Blue Springs and Independence utilizing the existing Kansas City Southern rail corridor and right-of-way;

* Construct an eastside streetcar line of approximately 6 miles (feeding into the light rail system at Union Station) and operating from the Citadel site (63rd & Prospect) generally along Prospect Avenue and Linwood Boulevard;

* Establish a new fleet of quiet, low-emission shuttles and an expanded bikeway network that connect to rail stations increasing the service area of the regional rail system;

* Establish a multimodal regional transportation center at the north wing of Union Station; and use the tax proceeds to finance bonds and secure federal matching funds?

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In brief, here are the estimated revenues and capital construction costs for Project Wellspring:

Capital construction costs:

1. 16 mile light rail spine...........................................................$900 million
2. 24 mile commuter rail line....................................................$250 million
3. 6 mile streetcar line..............................................................$200 million
4. Shuttles, bikeways, and Union Station hub..........................$050 million

Total estimated capital construction costs...............................$1.40 billion

Revenues:

1. 3/8-cent sales tax for 25-years............................................$1.250 billion
2. Federal matching grant (50% of $1.4 billion).......................$0.700 billion
3. Private donations, developer fees, and other......................$0.175 billion

Total estimated revenues........................................................$2.100 billion

* $700 million surplus to go toward financing charges and O & M.
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