Politics is still all local. And even in Kansas City, where we had only referendums, local can help...
The Kansas City Star reported that...
Kansas City voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a sales tax increase to rescue the Metro bus service and prevent service cuts that would have stranded thousands.
With all precincts reporting, the vote was 27,953-14,612, or 66 percent to 34 percent, in support of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority's three-eights-cent increase.
At party for the ATA tax supporters, Mayor Kay Barnes addressed a jubilant crowd of officials, bus riders and advocacy groups that worked to get out the vote.
"We wouldn't have been able to do this without the people in this room," Barnes said.
"This was truly a grass-roots effort."
Johnny Humphrey, a Kansas City resident who depends on the bus to get to work and to church, was with a group that helped register about 10,000 voters in anticipation of the transit election.
"We can have bus service on the weekend, and we'll have more routes established," Humphrey said. "I'm feeling great."
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Unlike other metropolitan areas, mass transit in Kansas City is virtually only used by citizens who reside in low income areas. You can feel very safe in assuming that those 10,000 voters won't be voting for Bush or Kit Bond in 2004.