By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Board

Mayor Mark Funkhouser won't give up on funding regional light rail this fall. He recently enlisted the help of county leaders Mike Sanders, Betty Knight and Ed Quick. Here's where the mayor's last-ditch plan stands now:

-- In Jackson County, Sanders frankly doesn't sound like he can get the mayors of major cities to embrace regional rail by July or August, when a decision has to be made to place something on the November ballot.

But Sanders said he'll try, cognizant of the fact that people want to know where the light-rail lines might go in their cities and when they would be built -- two major questions he can't answer yet.

For local governments to have credibility with voters, Sanders said, "we need to know what the service" will be from light rail.

Another Jackson County official issued a warning: "We can't win an election if it doesn't touch Independence."

For what it's worth, no light-rail plan yet unveiled has come close to touching Independence -- or Lee's Summit or Blue Springs, for that matter.

-- In Platte County, Knight said she too is committed to asking mayors and other civic leaders their thoughts on regional rail.

Again, she's not out front leading the charge.

"I just think there's a lot of work to be done," Knight said, agreeing with Sanders that people want to know where the light-rail light would be built.

"You don't just throw this on the wall and hope it sticks," Knight said.

-- In Clay County, Quick may have the most difficult selling job of all.

Most light-rail proposals unveiled over the years have shown a spur going into the Northland, all the way to Kansas City International Airport. That's in Platte County.

But no lines have extended, as yet, into the growing parts of Clay County. That especially includes the Shoal Creek Valley area in Kansas City in the eastern part of the county, next door to quick-growing Liberty.

Sanders, Knight and Quick ought to find out what support exists in their counties for regional light rail.

Sure, as Funkhouser continues to note, elected officials have to have vision to see the wisdom of building regional light rail.

But they also have to be practical. They know that other communities with light rail have first built starter lines -- as the City Council is now studying -- before moving on to larger systems.

At this point in the game, it still appears that funding only for a starter line in Kansas City is headed for November's ballot.