House leaders offer tax hike

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Democratic House leaders outlined a legislative package Tuesday that could ask voters to raise nearly $1 billion in new taxes for transportation and public schools.

The proposals by House Speaker Jim Kreider and Transportation Committee Chairman Don Koller would link two of the hottest topics at the Capitol in hopes that each would give the other a boost.

"This is an infrastructure bill, this is about bricks and mortar, it is about the economic future of our state," Kreider, of Nixa, said at a Capitol news conference.

Kreider, who is handling the education initiative, is proposing a one-quarter cent increase in the state sales tax to benefit school construction projects. He said it would generate $162 million annually.

Koller, of Summersville, is proposing a transportation package that he said would raise nearly $850 million. It includes a 4-cent increase in the motor fuel tax and 1-cent increases in the general state sales tax, vehicle sales tax and alcohol sales tax.

The proposal also includes an increase in the cigarette tax and a 10 percent increase in vehicle license and registration fees.

Koller's transportation proposal was available in legislative form Tuesday, but Kreider's education plan was not. Eventually, the two are to be merged into one bill.

Senate measure

Republican Sen. Morris Westfall of Halfway, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, has proposed a much smaller tax increase for transportation only.

Westfall's bill would raise an estimated $436 million through a 5-cent increase in the fuel tax and a three-eighths-of-a-cent increase in the general sales tax.

Westfall said he was "a little uneasy" about combining proposals for new transportation and education taxes.

"I think when you tie too many issues together, there is a tendency to jeopardize the whole package," he said.