Ten St. Louis aldermen will be traveling across the state Thursday for a history-making meeting with the Kansas City City Council, to discuss how best to kill a possible statewide ballot proposal that targets both cities' earnings tax.

The meeting, says some St. Louis officials, is unprecedented and could mark a turning point in what has been traditionally a cordial but distant relationship between Missouri's two largest cities.

Both cities rely heavily on their 1 percent earnings tax levied on people who live or work within their boundaries.  According to filings with the state auditor, St. Louis expects to collect $199.2 million, and Kansas City $141.2 million, during the current fiscal year.

"There's absolutely no way we can replace that amount of money,'' said St. Louis Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe, (left) a former state legislator and among the 10 making the trip to Kansas City.

Troupe said the meeting will focus on "how we can kill this thing,'' and also how the two cities can begin to exert more muscle on how the state Legislature spends state money.

Troupe contends that the St. Louis region gets a fraction of the money it sends to the state in taxes, and wields little influence over the various bodies that spend that money. "St. Louis has always been shortchanged,'' he said.

But the focus, for now, is on the earnings tax. Troupe said the idea for the bi-city meeting was hatched by St. Louis aldermen, among the city officials who contend elimination of the tax would result in wholesale service cuts.

The initiative-petition drive now underway is to place on this fall's ballot a proposal that would mandate that the cities' voters cast ballots every five years on whether to keep the earnings tax. If they vote against it, the tax would be phased out over 10 years.

e financial force behind the effort is wealthy semi-retired financier Rex Sinquefield (left), who resides in St. Louis' Central West End and on an estate in mid-Missouri. He contends the earnings tax impedes development and proposes alternatives, such as a land tax or higher sales tax.

Troupe asserts the city's sales tax would have to go up to 10 percent or more on each dollar. That would be on top of the state's sales tax rate, which also would go up if the Legislature opts to get rid of the income tax.

Troupe also alleges that too many legislators are buckling under Sinquefield's hefty campaign donations. In 2009, the financier was largest individual donor in the state.

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The St. Louis Board of Aldermen has invited the public to attend one of a series of meetings scheduled around the city to discuss the tax and proposals to eliminate it or phase it out.

The meetings are:

Tuesday, March 23 - Co-sponsored with Alderman Jeffrey Boyd
Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church
5544 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive
7 - 8 p.m.
 
Wednesday, March 24 - Co-sponsored with Alderman Matt Villa
Saint Stephen Protomartyr Catholic Church
3949 Wilmington Avenue
7 - 8 p.m.

Thursday, March, 25 - Co-sponsored with Alderwoman Kacie Starr Triplett
Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church
1444 South Compton
7 - 8 p.m.