St. Louis aldermen offer glowing reports of their unprecedented joint meeting Thursday with Kansas City's elected officials and business leaders, to discuss the importance of the two cities' earnings taxes to their economic well-being -- and that of their surrounding regions and the state.

"It was one of the most productive uses of nine hours of road time in my life, " said St. Louis Alderman Steve Conway, D-8th Ward. "We had a very good showing of ideas."

Conway and Alderman Steve Gregali, D-14th Ward, said they were particularly heartened by the support they saw from Kansas City business leaders and groups. "It's interesting in how the businesses in Kansas City have really embraced this," said Gregali. "They understand the impact."

Gregali dubbed the historic partnership of the state's two largest cities as a new "Team of Rivals," referrring to a book of the same name that examined President Abraham Lincoln's historic, and successful, decision to bring his political rivals into his administration's cabinet.

Missouri's political history is full of tug of wars between the two cities -- the chief, by the way, that the state capital is in Jefferson City. As the Missouri River travels, Jefferson City is midway between Kansas City and St. Louis,

Officials in both cities are concerned about an initiative petition drive, funded by wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield, that would ask Missourians to require residents in St. Louis and Kansas City to vote every five years on whether to keep the 1 percent earnings tax now levied on all who live or work in those communities.

If the residents vote to repeal the tax, it would be phased out over 10 years.

Conway also cited a provision that would bar other communities in Missouri from adopting an earnings tax.

For both big cities, the loss of the earnings tax could be devastating since its revenue accounts for close to 40 percent of each city's income.

Replacing the earnings taxes with other taxes would be worse, both aldermen said. Conway, an accountant, said he's figured out that St. Louis would have to double its property tax or increase its sales tax to almost 13 percent (more than double the current sales tax).

Step two is for both cities' officials to travel to Jefferson City for a meeting on April 10, and to collar various state legislators.

Conway said a key aim is for the two cities to make the states' legislators, and officials in smaller communities, aware of the stakes.

Officials in Kansas City and St. Louis plan to underscore the importance of both communities to the financial health of Missouri. Combined, the aldermen said, the two cities provide 70 percent of the state's income and 86 percent of its economic activity.