CANDIDATE TALENT PUSHES HIGHWAY PLAN TO LION'S CLUB

U.S. Rep. Jim Talent decried big government and pushed his highway plan during a visit to Cape Girardeau Wednesday.

The Republican candidate for governor told the Cape Girardeau Lion's Club that the state needs to issue bonds to fund highway improvements and complete the projects in Missouri's 15-year plan. About 50 people attended the meeting, held at the Holiday Inn.

Talent said all the projects in the 15-year plan could be under contract by 2011 if the Legislature adopts his financing plan.

The projects could be funded without raising taxes and Missouri could maintain its AAA bond credit rating, the congressman said.

Talent proposes selling more than $1 billion in bonds annually for 10 years. The bonds would be retired by earmarking $430 million a year in existing state and federal road funds, squeezing an extra $100 million from savings in Missouri Department of Transportation operations and diverting another $100 million from the state budget.

"I'm a big infrastructure person," said Talent, a former state representative who has represented Missouri's 2nd District in Congress since 1992.

Talent said Missouri's highways are in poor shape, ranking the state sixth worst in the nation.

The result has been lost lives and lost economic opportunities, he said.

Statewide, 7,000 people have died on Missouri's roads since 1992, an average of about three a day. Thirty percent of those fatalities have been blamed on poor road conditions, he said.

Yet, only 20 percent of the 15-year projects have been completed. The state has abandoned the plan, citing lack of funding.

But Talent feels the state can make it work with the use of bonds. Kansas, Arkansas and 41 other states have financed highway improvements with bonds. Missouri can do the same thing, he said. "This is just a question of will."

Said Talent, "We are not only not bold. We are behind."

Talent said the state needs to make highway improvements in a coordinated fashion. The Missouri Department of Transportation has improved sections of highways rather than entire corridors. "They never finished any road," he said.

Talent has made highway improvements a centerpiece of his gubernatorial campaign. He said he would take responsibility for the success or failure of the plan.

He said he's tired of hearing excuses as to why the highway improvements can't be done. "I think you can do it," he said.

Talent isn't a fan of toll roads. People pay twice for toll roads: Once in the form of taxes and again when they pay the toll, he said.

Toll roads, he said, would be more feasible in urban areas. But he suggested toll roads aren't needed if the state completes the list of projects on the 15-year plan.