Local politics rarely receive the kind of attention that their national counterparts do, but they frequently have a more immediate, noticeable effect on the lives of voters. Many of us switched our voter registrations for the 2012 elections, and now that we’re proud Missouri voters, we should turn out on April 2 to vote down the Safe and Accessible Arch and Public Parks Initiative, Proposition P.

Despite the email that Wash. U. kindly sent us with the lopsided link to yesonpropp.com (and isn’t it nice that the University treats us like political pawns?), Prop P should not be supported. In a nutshell, the proposition would levy a sales tax of three-sixteenths of a cent on St. Louis City and St. Louis County residents that would raise $31.4 million this year and $780 million over the tax’s 20-year lifespan, at which point it would need to be reaffirmed by voters. Thirty percent of this money would go to expanding Gateway Arch grounds, 40 percent would go to St. Louis City and County parks and 30 percent would go to Great Rivers Greenway, specifically completing its River Ring, an interconnected system of trails, on-street bicycle routes and parks in St. Louis City and County.

The problems with Prop P are manifold. First, the tax itself is dangerously flawed. By imposing a sales tax rather than an income tax, the burden of beautifying the city falls most on those least able to afford it. St. Louis is not a rich city, and sucking $780 million out of the pockets of the poor would have significant, adverse effects on their well-being. If this tax is to be considered at all, it should be reworked as a progressive tax, though that would probably cause it to lose the million dollars in support it has collected from local businesses, which are bankrolling the campaign.

Additionally, the proceeds from this tax would primarily benefit the City of St. Louis over St. Louis County, despite the fact that the latter contains roughly 1 million people as opposed to the 318,000 contained in the city limits. Indeed, only 20-30 percent of the proceeds mentioned above would be spent in St. Louis County, and many of its residents would notice no benefit at all. This proposed tax amounts, in part, to a capital city feeding off its outlying territories and is vaguely reminiscent of the fantasy world of “The Hunger Games.” St. Louis County residents already pay a 1 percent income tax for the privilege of working in the city; ought their coffers be drained further to make a place they rarely see more attractive?

Finally, now is not the time to levy new taxes of this nature. The St. Louis Metro Area—its economy none too strong to begin with—is still feeling the effects of the Great Recession, and from December 2012 to January 2013 (no more recent statistics exist), its unemployment rate jumped from 7 to 8 percent, which is above the national average. While government spending can certainly be used to create jobs in the long term—in the form of investment in education and infrastructure, for example—beautification is an expenditure that will see no economic benefit beyond the jobs created in the process. As that $780 million would end up in the economy regardless of government intervention and because government spending is less productive than is private spending, it’s safe to say that more jobs would be created, and the local economy would benefit more if the government left that money in its constituents’ pockets.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2. Voting locations are the same as they were in November, minus Ursa’s; students living on campus or on Forsyth Boulevard will be voting at Our Lady of Lourdes School, and those living around the Delmar Loop will go to Parkview Tower Apartments. A list of polling locations is also sitting in the mailboxes of anyone who hasn’t checked them recently. Prop P, though well-intentioned, is an unfair tax that will further harm St. Louis’ struggling economy, and in the spirit of helping your college town, I urge you all to vote no.