Missouri Jobs with Justice Says Vote NO on Proposition A. I agree

Supporters of the bill are flat out falsely claiming that this will make it easier to get a civilian review board, even though the ballot language explicitly prevents this.  Jobs with Justice, and pretty much all of the activists who have worked on this issue for over 10 years, are opposed to the phony version of "local control" expressed in Proposition A.  The people pushing this bill are working for multi-millionaire right-wing extremist Rex Sinquefield, who sees Missouri as his personal chess board.  Here's the text of the message from Missouri JWJ:

Jobs with Justice has supported local control of the St. Louis City Police Department, collective bargaining rights for police officers, and a civilian review board for our neighbors for over a decade.

However, the current ballot initiative proposing local control of the police unnecessarily undermines the power of a civilian review board and threatens good community/police relations.

Therefore we endorse a NO vote on Prop A, but continue to support other efforts to return control of the St. Louis City Police Department in a way that protects the rights of our police force and our neighbors by protecting collective bargaining rights for officers and the establishment of a civilian review board for our city. For more information check out: www.citizensagainstpropa.com.


Proposition A

Official Ballot Title:

    Shall Missouri law be amended to:
However, the current ballot initiative proposing local control of the police unnecessarily undermines the power of a civilian review board and threatens good community/police relations.

Therefore we endorse a NO vote on Prop A, but continue to support other efforts to return control of the St. Louis City Police Department in a way that protects the rights of our police force and our neighbors by protecting collective bargaining rights for officers and the establishment of a civilian review board for our city. For more information check out: www.citizensagainstpropa.com.


Proposition A

Official Ballot Title:

    Shall Missouri law be amended to:
Therefore we endorse a NO vote on Prop A, but continue to support other efforts to return control of the St. Louis City Police Department in a way that protects the rights of our police force and our neighbors by protecting collective bargaining rights for officers and the establishment of a civilian review board for our city. For more information check out: www.citizensagainstpropa.com.


Proposition A

Official Ballot Title:

    Shall Missouri law be amended to:

Proposition A
Official Ballot Title:
    Shall Missouri law be amended to:
 allow any city not within a county (the City of St. Louis) the option of transferring certain obligations and control of the city’s police force from the board of police commissioners currently appointed by the governor to the city and establishing a municipal police force;
establish certain procedures and requirements for governing such a municipal police force including residency, rank, salary, benefits, insurance, and pension; and
prohibit retaliation against any employee of such municipal police force who reports conduct believed to be illegal to a superior, government agency, or the press?
    State governmental entities estimated savings will eventually be up to $500,000 annually. Local governmental entities estimated annual potential savings of $3.5 million; however, consolidation decisions with an unknown outcome may result in the savings being more or less than estimated.

For the Full Text of Proposition A, visit this page on this Secretary of State's website. For the Fair Ballot Language, visit this page on the Secretary of State's website. To see the full list of MO JwJ's recommendations on this election's Propositions and Amendments, click here.

Prop A Anniversary (Video)

Thanks to Damien Johnson for grabbing some video of the panel assembled for the anniversary of Proposition A, the ballot initiative that saved public transportation in St. Louis. My fellow panelists included Nancy Cross of SEIU, Dr. Suggs of the St. Louis American, Tom Shrout the former director of Citizens for Modern Transit, Rose Windmiller of Washington University, and John Nations, at that time the leader of the campaign and the Republican Mayor of Chesterfield. The panel was moderated by Eddie Roth of the Post-Dispatch. Unfortunately, it looks like Damien didn't catch my introduction from Eddie, which about knocked me off my chair because it was so nice, but you can catch a good chunk of my comments on the role of social media and student involvement here:

Damien also got some video footage of Nancy Cross from SEIU discussing how they helped out in the campaign:

And John Nations:

UMSL Professors David Kimball and Todd Swanstrom (along with Tom Shrout) put together a nice report analyzing the campaign and suggesting some lessons for the future.

Other bloggers in attendance: Justin Chick of Transit Turning Point, Court Sloger of NextStop STL, and Steve Patterson of Urban Review STL.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Why You Should Vote NO on Prop A

Vote No On Prop A -

Activist Hub Radio 10/10/10

Hi all,

Continuing with the St. Louis Activist Hub Radio series,I'm posting yesterday's radio show. This week Adam and I discussed Ed Martian's latest truth bending statements, along with updates from the campaign trail in Missouri's third congressional district. We spent the second half of the show talking with Nancy Cross, Vice-President of SEIU local 1, about Proposition A and SEIU's efforts as part of a twenty-five group coalition to defeat Prop A and its sponsor Rex Sinquefield.




Don't forget to leave a comment.
Links:
http://saynotoa.org/

St. Louis American: Vote No on Prop A - and Sinquefield

The St. Louis American has officially come out against Proposition A, the ballot initiative to eliminate the earnings tax that would gut the budgets of St. Louis and Kansas City:

We have argued against Proposition A repeatedly. The city earnings tax in St. Louis is responsible for one-third of city revenue, and no one – not Sinquefield, not Slay – has any idea how to replace that revenue if the tax is eliminated. It is evident that more regressive forms of taxation, especially sales tax, would have to be raised to unconscionably high levels, placing a higher tax burden on the poor and working poor. Letting Prop A pass statewide to fight it locally on the April 2011 ballot makes no sense, because the issue will come up again every five years – shattering the confidence of the bond market in a city that suddenly will not know where one-third of its revenue is coming from. It also is possible that St. Louis could be forced into an economic crisis that would force a drastic downsizing of government in order to retain funding for public safety services. We have argued for reform of the City Charter – including trimming down the Board of Aldermen, which Slay, gutless again, did not endorse – but we do not think that disaster capitalism is the route to achieve this desired end.

While we strongly believe that Proposition A is bad for St. Louis and other municipal governments, which deserve local control over their tax decisions, we also think now is a critical time to show Rex Sinquefield that you can’t buy the public policy you desire. On Nov. 2, we all have an additional 10.7 million reasons to vote NO ON PROPOSITION A.

Image credit: The St. Louis American

Proposition A Would Damage St. Louis's Credit Rating

A KMOX news report brings up a point today that I've been meaning to make for a while: voting yes on Proposition A, the earnings tax ballot initiative, would damage the credit rating of St. Louis and Kansas City. The initiative, funded almost entirely by billionaire Rex Sinquefield's private fortune (he's spent over $10 million on the race so far) was cleverly crafted. Instead of using ballot language that would allow state voters to directly eliminate the earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas City, the bill was set up so that it would force a vote on the earnings tax in those cities every five years. That way, Sinquefield and his friends could frame the bill as "Letting Voters Decide." However, this title is misleading, because the bill actually prevents voters from deciding in every city other than St. Louis and Kansas City; those cities would be banned from ever implementing an earnings tax.

Unfortunately, Mayor Slay and some other St. Louis city officials have not been pushing back on the November vote, claiming that the best bet is to wait until a city wide vote in April (and also potentially under the influence of huge donations from Sinquefield to their campaigns). But, as Darlene Green explained to KMOX, the idea that waiting until April is better strategy has a fundamental flaw. St. Louis City's credit rating would likely be damaged even by a yes vote in November, because it would introduce instability in the city's revenue. Here's how Green puts it:

“Prop-A would actually cause our revenues to be unstable,” Green said, “because every five years voters would have to vote it in our out.”

And later:

Unlike Mayor Slay, who describes Proposition-A as a possible future threat, Green says the financial uncertainty that would be caused by Proposition-A passing in November could have an immediate impact on the city’s credit rating.

Standard and Poors recently re-affirmed the city’s A-plus rating, but that rating could be in doubt overnight if Prop-A passes in November, Green said.

“What you’ve got to look at are the buyers of those bonds,” Green said, “Who’s going to buy a bond from a city with unstable revenue? Would you? Would you buy a municipal bond from St. Louis city?”

If the city’s credit rating were lowered to non-investment grade, Green says it could jeopardize several pending public-private partnership projects — including Paul McKee’s northside plan, the Peabody Opera House and the renovation of May Department store downtown.

It's also worth noting that any education of city voters done for November would also carry over to April, so it's especially puzzling that Slay and other city officials have decided to ignore this election. And, of course, if Prop A passed and the earnings tax was repealed in April, the results would be disastrous. Funding for vital city services like the police and fire department would be cut; the tax burden would be shifted to the people who can least afford it.

Vote No on Prop A! Sinquefield won't stop spending money until he runs out or dismantles the public sector, so we might as well stand up to him now!

Prop A Is An Attempt to Shift Tax Burden to the Poor

Rebecca Rivas at the St. Louis American wrote a great article about the consequences for the poor of Proposition A passing:

For Missourians who make $17,000 or less, about six percent of their income goes towards sales taxes – and less than one percent goes towards income taxes, according to a November 2009 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

For those who make $412,000 or more, it’s almost completely opposite.

Less than one percent of their income goes towards paying sales taxes, and 4.4 percent goes towards income taxes.

If Missouri’s poor pay proportionately more sales tax and the rich pay proportionately more income tax, an important question for voters this November is: Why would a billionaire propose a ballot initiative that would result in getting rid of local income tax and replacing it with more sales taxes?

Read the whole article here. And then vote No on Prop A.