A Look At Local Election Results

Voter turnout in the City of St. Louis was an impressive 72.8%! That figure is a bit misleading though, 72.8% of registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday, a total of 142,042, but not every ballot voted on every item. I personally didn’t vote in those races with only one candidate (ex: Circuit Attorney), others did the same.

Here is a list of how many voters did not vote on citywide races:

• President: 456
• Senate: 1,754
• Governor: 3,052
• Lt. Governor: 5,081
• Secretary of State: 5,935
• State Treasurer: 6,199
• Attorney General: 5,251
• US Rep Dist 1: 5,802
• Circuit Attorney: 18,541
• Public Administrator: 11,067
• Sheriff: 10,173
• Treasurer: 8,824
• Amendment 3: 13,748 (change current nonpartisan judge process)
• Proposition A: 8,003 (local control of St. Louis police)
• Proposition B: 5,534 (increase cigarette tax)
• Proposition E: 11,032 (prohibit healthcare exchanges)
• Proposition R: 13,459 (reduce Board of Aldermen)

So 456 people took the time to vote but didn’t pick a presidential ticket? The fewest ballots cast were in the race for Circuit Attorney. Competitive races get higher participation. Hopefully,  in a decade, when we have 14 wards instead of our current 28 there will be increased competition.

Tuesday night when I was at Sen. Claire McCaskill’s watch party at the Chase I checked local results on the KMOV iPhone app, I tweeted the following image that I’d taken as a screen capture.

Oh no, Prop R is going down big time, not just failing to get the 60% approval necessary to change the charter. Very quickly I got replies saying the results from other sources showed the opposite. In the end 65.9% of registered voters weighed in on this important change to city governance. But I’m bugged that 13,459 voters, 14.5% of registered voters, didn’t take the time to make a decision. Though if they had Proposition R might have failed!

But it passed with 61.49% of the vote, just over the 60% needed. So a decade from now you’ll see some real change start to happen.Will the 2020 census record yet another decline in population? Would making the reduction in the number of aldermen have sent a message to young progressives to stay in St. Louis, that we can change? We’ll never know the answer to that last question.

— Steve Patterson

Missouri’s Cigarette Taxes Are Embarrassingly Low, Smoking Rates High

Eight states border Missouri, all with substantially higher cigarette taxes than we do. Kentucky is the lowest of the eight and their tax rate is 353%  higher than our rate. On the high end is Illinois, there taxes are 1,165% higher than our $0.17 rate!

Proposition B, if approved tomorrow, will raise our cigarette taxes to $0.96. At that rate four neighbors would have lower taxes and four would have higher taxes — we’d be in the middle.

If Proposition B passes, the best data suggest that we will experience an almost 12 percent reduction in teen smoking and prevent more than 40,000 Missouri youths from starting to smoke. More than 30,000 adult smokers in Missouri will likely quit smoking, and more than 20,000 premature deaths from smoking-caused diseases will be prevented over a very few years. More than 8,000 smoking-exposed pregnancies will be prevented. Furthermore, those of us who do not smoke will have less exposure to passive smoking, further reducing the risk of smoking-related diseases.

Passing Proposition B will result in huge health care cost savings over five years — $4.95 million from fewer cases of lung cancer, $17.69 million from fewer pregnancies exposed to cigarette smoke, and $11.8 million from fewer heart attacks and strokes. Over the long term, Missouri will save about $1.37 billion from health care cost savings from reduced teen and adult smoking. (Guest editorial @ stltoday.com)

Basically Missouri has failed in the past to raise taxes like our neighbors have done.

In Missouri, 25% of the adult population (aged 18+ years)—over 1,120,000 individuals—are current cigarette smokers. Across all states, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults ranges from 9.3% to 26.5%. Missouri ranks 48th among the states. (CDC)

Forthy-eight out of fifty!

Approximately 30% of the annual revenue generated from state excise taxes and settlement payments would fund Missouri’s tobacco control program at the Best Practices recommended amount. However, in 2007, Missouri’s funding for tobacco control was 1.7% of the recommended level. Missouri ranks 49th among the states. (CDC)

We’d still be below the national average of $1.34 per pack. Please vote yes on Proposition B to get us caught up.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Should Archibald &/or Biondi Resign Their Positions?

Saint Louis University President Lawrence Biondi and Missouri History Museum President Robert Archibald are both under fire for unrelated reasons.

Archibald:

The museum’s purchase of the Delmar land, which was owned by former Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr., has drawn fire for weeks. The Zoo-Museum District board report also lambasts the compensation of the History Museum’s president, Robert Archibald, saying his newest contract should be withdrawn and his perks and vacation days re-evaluated. (stltoday.com)

Archibald, head of the museum since 1988, had signed a new three-year contract in July. The board of trustees at that time also agreed to pay him for 410 unused vacation days, due as a lump sum when he retired. Archibald used to receive eight weeks of vacation. He now is entitled to four weeks, but also gets six weeks for “historical researching and writing.” (stltoday.com)

Biondi:

The St. Louis University Faculty Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly against the leadership of the school’s president, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi.

The Senate room erupted in applause and cheers when the 51-4 no-confidence vote was announced, following nearly two hours of debate. (stltoday.com)

The Student Government Association at St. Louis University joined the push to oust the university’s president late Wednesday.

The student group by a 38-0 vote passed a “no confidence” measure against the leadership of the school’s president, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, and the school’s vice president of academic affairs, Manoj Patankar. There was one abstention.

The vote came at the end of a six-hour meeting, student leaders who attended the meeting said. (stltoday.com)

Both men have their supporters and detractors. Will they persevere despite criticism? The poll question this week asks if they should resign, the poll is in the right sidebar.

— Steve Patterson

Vote Yes On Proposition R To Reduce The Board Of Aldermen From Twenty-Eight To Fourteen

A week from today voters in the City of St. Louis will go to the polls in large numbers to make their choice for president, US senate, etc. The last item on the ballot is Proposition R, the measure to reduce the size of the board of aldermen from 28 to 14.

The change wouldn’t take place for a decade though, after the 2020 Census figures are released in 2021 only 14 wards would be drawn. Change doesn’t happen overnight.

Many of you may not think it’d make a difference or the reduction would be negative, reducing your access. The problem with that way of thinking is we’re paying 28 people to legislate but we go to them for tasks better solved by an empowered city staff.

Our aldermen can’t look at the big picture needs of the city because they are fielding calls about pot holes, stop signs and replacement dumpsters. This is partly their fault, it worked great for making voters feel like they help. But this is no way to run a city. See video here.

So how did your current alderman vote?  The following voted “Yes” to place this on the ballot, ward number after the name.

1. Flowers/2
2. Triplett /6
3. Young/7
4. Conway/8
5. Ortmann/9
6. Arnowitz/12
7. Wessels/13
8. Howard/14
9. Florida/15
10. Baringer/16
11. Roddy/17
12. Davis/19
13. Schmid/20
14. French/21
15. Boyd/22
16. Vaccaro/23
17. Ogilvie/24
18. Cohn/25
19. Carter/27
20. Krewson/28
21. Reed/President

The following voted “No” to place this on the ballot, ward number after the name.

1. Troupe/1
2. Bosley/3
3. Moore/4
4. Hubbard/5
5. Villa/11
6. Kennedy/18
7. Williamson/26

Ald Vollmer (10th ward) didn’t vote as he was out due to injury.

OFFICIAL BALLOT – SPECIAL ELECTION

PROPOSITION R – CHARTER AMENDMENT

(Board of Aldermen Amendment)

Shall the Charter of the City of St. Louis be amended in accordance with the Board of Aldermen Amendment Ordinance?

This Amendment restructures the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis as a body of fourteen Aldermen representing fourteen wards, provides for a transition schedule to implement the restructuring, and other related matters, all as set forth in the “Board of Aldermen Amendment Ordinance,” a copy of which is available at all polling places. [Board Bill 31 Committee Substitute]

Please vote yes.

— Steve Patterson

History Museum Applied For Demolition Permit Less A Month After Buying Delmar Property

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has been looking into the Missouri History Museum’s 2006 purchase of property on Delmar from former mayor Freeman Bosley Jr., here is the issue:

The Zoo-Museum District board has questioned the museum’s 2006 purchase of a one-acre parcel on Delmar Boulevard from former St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. The museum spent $875,000 to buy the land and at least $100,000 more in additional expenses. (stltoday.com)

In most of their stories they refer to land but rarely mention the existing building, a former McDonald’s, was razed after purchase.

In a few stories I did find a reference to the building being razed after being purchased by the museum, but no concern about the loss in value as a result.  When you buy an occupied commercial property that had numerous big investments in the past few years that is part of what you are buying. Raze the building and you destroy some of the value.

But the boards must have taken that into consideration as they studied the options behind their new acquisition, right? Probably not. The Post-Dispatch says they closed on the property on Thursday November 9th, 2006. City records online say the sales date was the following Tuesday the 14th, maybe the actual recording date into city records.

The Wednesday after Thanksgiving, Bellon Wrecking Co applied for a demolition permit, estimating the cost at $10,000.   Permit #387069 was issued on January 23, 2007 and by February 27, 2007 the building was gone.

What was the rush? Couldn’t they have leased the restaurant to someone else while they raised funds for the community center? We know from the Post-Dispatch investigations there was little oversight into the purchase so the decision to quickly discard a functional building was also made in the same manner.

I’m curious how the improvements could be assessed at $67,800 in 1997-98, $60,200 in 1999-2000, -$2,800 in 2001-02, and $100 for the years 2003 through 2010. The other question I have is why the Missouri History Museum felt it was in their role to build a community center in the first place? Is a community center what is needed in the area? My guess is something generating property taxes, sales taxes and jobs for the community would be a better fit.

This site will be on the new Loop Trolley route, it needs density.

— Steve Patterson