AREA LAWMAKERS UNANIMOUS IN SUPPORTING TAX INCREASE

JEFFERSON CITY - All Southeast Missouri lawmakers Tuesday joined the legislature's overwhelming support of a 6-cent increase in the state's fuel tax over the next five years.

"It's been a pretty dramatic day," said Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, in assessing the more than five hours of debate on the measure.

Efforts to thwart controversial amendments that would have funded mass transit or send the measure to a vote of the people were successful.

"I was happy it passed and stayed pretty much intact," said Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson. "I was surprised we had as many votes as we did in the end."

The measure was approved by a margin of 125 to 35. Under the bill, a 2-cent increase would take effect immediately, with additional increments of 2-cents added in 1994 and 1996.

Highway officials have said that by acting immediately, work can begin this construction season creating 7,800 new jobs now and enabling Missouri to match all available federal funding.

Rep. Dennis Ziegenhorn, D-Sikeston, said: "It's smart government to pass this bill." He said the measure will allow Missouri to receive $4 from the federal government for every $1 the state allocates for highway projects.

"I'm really happy about it passing and I don't think people will be too upset about our vote once they understand the benefits," he said.

Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, said the bill received bi-partisan support. "The nice part about this bill is that it never fell prey to partisan politics," he said. "It was just a matter of whether it was a good bill or not. Everybody understood the urgency of doing something right now.

"For the most part there was very valuable and direct debate over the merits of the bill going on. A lot of confusion was addressed today in debate and I think people here fully understood that this bill is about putting Missourians back to work and improving highways."

Rep. Ollie Amick, D-Benton, said he was pleased no amendments were tacked on to weaken what he considers is a good bill.

"It was a clean bill for the most part and the changes that were made were minor," he said. "They maybe even made it a stronger bill."

Amick said the unanimous support from Southeast Missouri representatives "speaks well for the choice of projects that will be funded."

Tuesday's vote was to ready the bill for a final vote either today or Thursday. Since the bill is "perfected," no amendments can be proposed.

After final approval, the House will vote on whether to impose an emergency clause that would immediately put the bill into effect with the governor's signature, instead of Aug. 28.

"I'm convinced that all the votes will be there for the emergency clause," Thomason said.

The bill still requires Senate approval. If it is changed by the Senate, then the bill would be returned to the House before going to Gov. John Ashcroft for his signature.

The Senate likely will consider the bill next week and most House members Tuesday didn't anticipate any major changes by the Senate.

"I really feel like it will breeze through here and in two weeks we will have a gas tax," said Ziegenhorn.

"We are hoping the Senate will vote on the package we have without amendments," added Thomason. "That is impossible to predict, but there is a lot of sentiment expressed to do that."

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce President Bob Hendrix said he was a little surprised by the wide margin but looked forward to final approval and efforts to get the highway projects started.

"This is the best news I've had this year," said Hendrix. "It will mean a lot of jobs for Southeast Missouri and a lot of roads. Now we need to gear up for the battle of how quick we can get them.

"From everything I had been hearing, I did not expect the margin to be that wide. I'm tickled to death the legislature saw the need for quick timing on this."

Lawmakers have struggled the past few weeks with the question of whether to submit the tax increase to the state's voters or enact it themselves to take advantage of the approaching construction season.

Ziegenhorn said that while some voters might be upset they weren't given a chance to vote on the tax increase, he's confident they'll support the legislature's action once they "get all the facts.

"We did not have the time to wait on this and did not need to spend $2 million on an election," he said. "Our job now as responsible representatives is to tell the people this is a smart decision for Missouri - a good business deal."

Ziegenhorn said the increase in federal highway matching funds isn't the bills only benefit. He said an increase on the gas tax, of which 40 percent is paid by out-of-state residents, will create jobs, improve highways, and boost economic development in Missouri.

Ziegenhorn said that after all the discussion the gas tax received in the past few weeks likely helped most lawmakers decide their position before they entered the House chamber Tuesday.

"I still think if we would have voted at 10:30 it would have been the same result as at 3:30," he said. "The debate was mainly a show."

Ziegenhorn said he was satisfied with an amendment offered by Rep. Don Koller, chairman of the transportation committee, that ends the tax in 2008.

Kasten said she was pleased that efforts to keep funding for mass transit out of the bill were successful.

"There are a lot of other sources of funding for transit," she said. "I feel like this bill will make quite an impact and mean many jobs for our area.

"I now hope we can move ahead quickly," Kasten added. "I'm sure some people are disappointed that some scenarios were not discussed, but I hope we can move forward and get this done."