Domesticating the Tea Party (UPDATED)

The grassroots continue to bloom with "Vote No on Prop A" signs as the signs of the Tea Party movement move to the curbside in St Louis county. Please email photos of your sign to me: dsm012-at-gmail-d0t-com.

Nick, a high school student who will be voting in his first election on April 6th, leads the way on Prop A.

Citizens concerned about higher taxes, like Nick in the video above, have ramped up their efforts to stop the metro tax increase. Their message: Vote No on Prop A. This ballot issue goes to a vote on Tuesday, April 6th. An off year, Spring vote usually sees very low turnout; however, the Tea Party activism of the last year has raised awareness of local issues and may make a difference on Tuesday. Yes, next Tuesday.

Bringing the Tea Party "Brand" to the Front Lawn

The effort to stop the sales tax increase has energized conservatives; however, the lack of funding for the Stop the Prop effort has required tax conscious county residents to innovate. No money means no yard signs. As illustrated above, some county residents are bringing the flavor of Tea Party-style signs home to their front yard.

Several members of the St Louis area As A Mom have pitched in. One of them created a flyer. Go get it, print several copies, cut the sheets in half (there are two copies of the flyer per page), and hand them out. A phone tree is in the works. You can help the effort simply by calling friends and relatives in St Louis county and asking them to vote no on Prop A on April 6th.

There's also an effort underway to get more homemade yard signs like the one above. As details about that effort are hammered out, I'll post more here. If you have any sign ideas, please leave them in the comments!

Stop Prop A

SpikeStL shot the video above at this past Saturday's StopTheProp rally. The StopTheProp team is working to prevent a half cent sales tax increase in St Louis and, indirectly, a quarter cent increase in the city. The sales tax created by Prop A would go to increase the sunk costs of St Louis's lightrail system. The St Louis Tea Party's Jon Burns was there to rally the crowd as was Bill Hennessy. Hennessy had this recent post about the man behind the "Vote No on Prop A" effort:

Today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch delivers a magnificent portrait of John Burns, the taxpayer’s champion. Buy two copies of the paper: one to read, one to give away. In Ken Leiser’s story, you’ll learn about a man of character—something severely lacking in our society—who’s championed the fight against an irresponsible tax hike for an unaccountable agency.

I’ll leave the rest of the story to the able keystrokes of Mr. Leiser. But I must finish with this: if there’s some way to buy stock in John Burns, do it. When you combine intelligence, integrity, and tirelessness in one man, you have the stuff stars are made of.

Here's a portrait I shot of Burns at the gulag protest last fall:

Monday's Metro Tax Debate in Clayton

About a hundred people attended a debate in Clayton moderate by Joan Berkman about the proposed half-cent Metro sales tax (Prop A). The debate was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and pitted Prop A supporter John Nations (www.AdvanceStLouis.com) against Prop A opponent John Burns (www.StopTheProp.com). (Full disclosure: I am an unpaid volunteer with the StopTheProp.com effort.)

Runaway Train

Wendell Cox writes in the WSJ about the runaway subsidy train [emphasis added]:

In the other corridors where the administration plans to spend money—such as Charlotte to Raleigh and Chicago to St. Louis—projected train speeds won't be much faster than what the fastest trains in the 1930s were able to do. Some trains then topped 80 mph. As a result, car trips will normally be as fast door to door, and they will be far less costly than taking the train and then renting a car.

There is no need to subsidize intercity travel. Flyers pay for virtually all of the costs of running the airline system, including airports and air traffic control. Gasoline taxes and highway tolls built and maintain intercity roadways, and they also support mass transit with $10 billion in subsidies annually. Intercity buses require no taxpayer funds.

Only rail requires heavy subsidies. At the end of the day, the great danger is that true high-speed rail could cost taxpayers even more than the tens of billions in subsidies that have been paid to Amtrak since the 1970s.

Mr. Obama said in Tampa last week that we are "falling behind" other countries in high-speed rail. With a record budget deficit, it makes sense to fall behind in spending on high-speed rail that we don't need with money we don't have.