Ex-lawmaker, chamber president named to road panel

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A former St. Louis area Senate leader and the president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce are Gov. Bob Holden's next picks to serve on the state transportation commission, The Associated Press has learned.

Former Senate President Pro Tem Bill McKenna and Springfield chamber president Jim Anderson are both longtime friends of Holden, and both share his goals for Missouri's transportation system.

A source close to the governor confirmed Holden's selections for the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. McKenna and Anderson both told the AP that they had been asked to fill out background check forms -- a customary step before anyone is officially appointed to a state position.

Holden plans to announce his transportation appointees next week, spokesman Jerry Nachtigal said Thursday.

Commission terms are to expire Saturday for chairman S. Lee Kling of St. Louis and William Gladden of Houston. Vice chairman Edward Douglas of Chillicothe is to leave the commission Dec. 1. His replacement has not been chosen.

The transportation commission is composed of six members who serve six-year terms. Holden has the rare chance to reshape the commission by appointing three new members within the span of a couple months.

The commission has been criticized by some for providing either too little or too much money to rural or urban areas. Others claim the commission has focused too much or too little on mass transit, as opposed to highways.

With such tensions as a backdrop, the Legislature rejected a bill this year that would have boosted transportation funding by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Back new revenues

McKenna and Anderson both said they support new revenues for transportation, which they define as including trains, planes, buses and barges -- not just roads and bridges.

Holden has said any candidate for the job must support a "total transportation plan."

Anderson served with Holden on the Total Transportation Commission appointed by former Gov. Mel Carnahan. That panel recommended a 1-cent state sales tax increase for transportation, an idea that fizzled in the Legislature.

Anderson also served as chairman of a transportation commission advisory committee, which recommended highway funding decisions be based on needs such as maintenance, corridor development, safety and economic development. Those criteria were incorporated into the commission's official highway funding plan.

Anderson, a Democrat, said several people from both the Democratic and Republican parties had suggested his name to Holden.

McKenna, a Democrat who was forced out of the Senate by term limits in January 1999, now is the interim president of Jefferson College in Hillsboro.

He said Holden called him a couple of months ago asking if he was interested in serving on the transportation commission. McKenna replied that he would be honored.