GOP OPPOSES SESSION ON ROADS

Missouri's House Republicans have unanimously opposed a special session to pass a tax increase for transportation.

Gov. Mel Carnahan has considered a special session to deal with transportation issues after receiving a report from his Total Transportation Commission last month. The commission's report included a request for a 1-cent increase in the general sales tax, among other steps, to generate between $13 billion and $17 billion for unspecified transportation projects.

By state law, voters must decide on an increase in the sales tax, and election officials need 10 weeks to prepare ballots for a special election. Propositions for the Nov. 4 general election must be filed with the secretary of state by Aug. 26. To meet these deadlines, the governor must call a special session.

Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, said on Monday that members of the House Republicans Summer Caucus took their stand over the weekend. Republicans had heard reports from a transportation task force it formed to study transportation issues during the past two months.

Fifty four House Republicans went on record at the Saturday meeting in Branson as being against holding a special session, the GOP said in a statement Monday. There are 75 Republicans in the 163-member House, where Democrats have been in charge for more than four decades.

Republicans cited obscure projects in the commission's report as their reason for the opposition, Kasten said. Lawmakers could not determine whether the commission's report would include special projects -- like mass transit improvements for St. Louis -- along with the road projects included in the original 15-year plan developed by the Department of Transportation.

"There were so many ambiguities to this point that we don't feel comfortable asking for a tax increase," she said. "There's no doubt we need roads and bridge repair, but I think we need to know what we're buying before we issue a blank check."

Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, said it is also unclear how much of a shortfall, if any, there actually is in the 15-year plan. Lawmakers should review final audit reports before they ask Missourians for more money.

Schwab said there were also options other than a tax increase that could be considered. The most obvious option would be to extend the 15-year plan and increase the department's budget next year.

"Our economy's been going good; we could come back and just budget for road improvements rather than taking a sales tax to the people," he said. "We promised this 15-year plan to the people, but if it takes longer, it just takes longer."

Kasten and Schwab said Southeast Missouri road projects are basically on hold until final departmental reports are submitted and reviewed.

Both agreed that the Total Transportation Commission will need to be more specific about the projects in its report before decisions could be made about transportation funding.

"A lot of money could be used on things other than the 15-year plan," Schwab said. "By state law, that money could be used to finance any type of transportation project, including mass transit in the cities and projects of that sort. What we want to do is concentrate on the projects for road and bridge repair and improvements that were in the original 15-year plan."

House Republican Leader Delbert Scott of Lowry City said in Monday's statement that the case for calling a special session on transportation hasn't been made.

"The notion of calling a special session to ask taxpayers for another tax increase before all the facts are in is completely irresponsible," Scott said.

He added that lawmakers haven't received a copy of the report from Carnahan's Total Transportation Commission, which approved its final positions in early July.

Scott also said that state gas tax revenues, including a 6-cent gas tax approved in 1992 to finance highway projects, continue to exceed projections.

Carnahan and his Total Transportation Commission counter that the 1992 plan is underfunded over its life by a projected $14 billion, mostly because its backers five years ago didn't add the cost of inflation and changes in the scope of projects.

"There is not an immediate crisis," Scott insisted in his statement, "and it is irresponsible to act as if there is."

"The governor's `tax first, ask questions later' approach is not good governance and we will not support a `hurry up and shoved through fast' tax just so he can get a large tax increase on the next ballot where a few voters will decide the fate for all other Missourians," the GOP leader said.

Carnahan spokesman Chris Sifford said the governor was disappointed by Scott's statement - particularly because Carnahan met recently with the Republican leader and Scott voiced no such opposition.

"The discussion was very productive and the governor felt at that time that Representative Scott was willing to discuss the issue and reach some sort of consensus about how to move transportation forward in the state," Sifford said.

Asked whether the governor considers the transportation situation a crisis, the spokesman said: "We think there is a big shortfall. I don't think we've ever characterized it as a crisis, but it's a problem that has to be addressed."

(Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.)