LETTERS: ROADS NEED IDEAS, NOT MORE BLAME

To the editor:

I read with interest your Jan. 11 editorial regarding SJR 37, a proposal I have introduced to allow voters the option of using revenue over the Hancock limit to help maintain highways in our state. I appreciate your interest in legislation that will give voters a reasonable and efficient option to maintain an essential part of our state's infrastructure. While the editorial and I don't necessarily agree on how roads can be maintained, we do agree that they must be maintained and that it will cost money to accomplish this.

As the editorial notes, we cannot be certain that additional Hancock refunds will continue to be available in the future. However, budget analysts weren't able to project the kind of surpluses that have allowed us to cut taxes by $650 million over the last five years while refunding similar amounts directly to taxpayers. What we can predict is that it is more cost-effective to use even small amounts of excess revenue for worthy programs, approved by voters, than to incur the $1 million or so it costs to do a statewide refund mailing.

Other ideas, such as issuing bonds for highways, have been proposed, and I would consider supporting such an issue only if it was determined that's the only way to get support for our infrastructure. I believe there are other options that would allow us to address this problem now -- instead of passing a higher cost later to be paid by our children -- that merits consideration first. We should fix these problems now and not leave them to burden later generations.

Like many lawmakers, both urban and outstate, I am not happy with the outcome of the so-called 15-year highway plan. Pointing fingers of blame, especially when administration and highway officials involved in that plan are no longer around, doesn't fix the roads. I am ready to spend whatever amount of energy and effort and would welcome help from anyone else so inclined to move forward to develop a plan that does fix the roads.

STATE SEN. SIDNEY JOHNSON

34th District

Agency, Mo.