HIGHWAY BONDS MAY HELP RESTORE LOCAL TRUST

By a 28-5 vote, the Missouri Senate this week passed and sent to the House a plan to sell $2 billion in bonds to accelerate highway construction. The bill calls for selling $500 million in bonds each year for four years beginning next year.

The Missouri Department of Transportation would use the revenue to complete projects already planned. The highway commission would list projects to be funded by the bond money, and the House and Senate would have 60 days to reject the list.

Contained in the measure is language directing MoDOT to follow the 15-year plan announced in 1992 and abandoned by the commission in 1998. Urban legislators objected to this, but the Senate version reflects identical language already approved by the House. The House version differs in one key area: The bonds would be issued over six years instead of four.

Before the debate was over, more than one senator maintained passage of this plan would eventually mean a tax increase for road and bridge construction. The only way to pay off these bonds is with a fuel tax increase, said state Sen. John Schneider, D-Florissant, who voted for the plan. "This will put us in a position that in order to maintain roads down the road we will have to raise taxes."

The main sponsor of the bipartisan measure is state Sen. Jim Mathewson, D-Sedalia, who said this is just a first step to jump-start transportation efforts. Mathewson made clear his view that Missouri needs a comprehensive transportation package that includes a tax increase to generate revenue. He said he likely will offer such a proposal within two years. He also stressed that if his bill becomes law this year, it will offer MoDOT an opportunity to begin earning back the trust lost over the last three years as they have abandoned the ambitious plans they announced in 1992 at the time of the last increase in the fuel ta

It is clear that the bonding plan represents a calculated gamble. Essentially what the Legislature is saying to MoDOT is: We are advancing you a half-billion dollars a year for four years. Get busy and accelerate construction plans you have in the pipeline, hewing as close as possible to the 15-year plan announced back in 1992, and we will see whether sufficient public trust can be won back to ask the people for a fuel-tax increase down the road to pay off these bonds and do even more.

It may not be pretty, it may not be the very finest way to make policy. Still, Missouri has lots of catching up to do where highways are concerned. Drive other states and you will see that amid our potholes and deteriorating bridges, we are far behind. Given political realities, this bonding proposal may be the best approach we can get at this juncture.