If history repeats itself, fate of transportation tax not favorable

Southeast Missouri has an interesting history when it comes to supporting state transportation funding.

As voters prepare to vote on Amendment 7, the latest measure designed to increase the state transportation department's funding, proponents have sought to persuade them the three-quarter-cent sales tax is the best way to maintain and improve the state's aging infrastructure.

If the past is any indication, these supporters may need to brace themselves for an unfavorable outcome.

In 1978, a 3-cent fuel tax increase was defeated by voters, as well as a 4-cent fuel tax in 1982.

The state's third proposed tax increase for transportation was Proposition B, which appeared before voters in 2002. Prop B called for raising the fuel tax by 4 cents a gallon and adding a half-cent to the sales tax. While the measure was soundly rejected across the state, with 72.5 percent of voters against, it suffered an especially poor fate locally. In 19 Southeast Missouri counties combined, it was voted down by 81.6 percent of voters, a ratio slightly higher than 4-to-1.

Drew Niermann, materials testing technician with Koehler Engineering and Land Surveying, Inc., scoops concrete into a slump cone to test the amount of water in the concrete before it is poured for a culvert along Highway 34 near Marble Hill, Tuesday, July 15, 2014. The test predicts weather the concrete is going to be strong enough for a structure. (Laura Simon)

Just two years later, the area came out ahead of the statewide average in its support for Amendment 3. Across 18 Southeast Missouri counties, one in every eight votes was in favor of the measure that shifted about $30 million to the Missouri Department of Transportation by restricting the Legislature's ability to allocate funds from fuel taxes and license fees to other state agencies.

Reports at the time indicated Missourians did not dispute the need for increased transportation funding in 2002, but voted against Prop B because of a faltering state economy, mistrust of MoDOT officials and dislike of a regressive sales tax. The campaign supporting Amendment 3 in 2004 cited a lack of increased taxes as a key selling point, one that seemed to strike a note with voters.

It's been roughly a decade since those measures were at the forefront of the transportation tax debate, but it would seem they still have bearing on Amendment 7. When the latest attempt to increase state transportation funds via sales tax made its way through the Legislature, the Missouri Senate reduced the tax from one cent to three-quarters of a cent, calling it a compromise.

The measure appearing on the August ballot comes with a number of taxpayer safeguards, said Jewell Patek, campaign manager for Missourians for Safe Transportation and New Jobs. They include a 10-year sunset and a requirement that MoDOT provide a list of transportation projects to be completed with funds raised by the tax, which will not be applied to "necessities of life" such as groceries and utilities. The amendment also would bar the state from raising the gas tax or implementing toll roads throughout the life of the tax.

"I think all those provisions make the measure a much better measure than what was presented to the voters in 2002," he said.

The tax is estimated to bring in about $534 million annually and was proposed as a way to cover a projected shortfall in MoDOT's budget. Department officials have said it takes $485 million annually to maintain infrastructure, and the budget is expected to drop to $325 million in 2017.

But many Missourians are not convinced a sales tax is the best way to address the state's transportation issues. Linda Reutzel is vice chairwoman of No MO Tax, a local group that favors fiscal responsibility and opposes tax increases. Despite assurances from proponents, she has concerns the way money from the tax would be spent.

"I don't want it spent frivolously," she said of the money that would be raised by the transportation tax. "With our economy now, we need to tighten the belt and just spend on stuff that needs to be spent on."

She also is concerned about the shift from funding the state's transportation needs through fuel taxes to a sales tax.

"Once they vote it in, that three-quarter cent sales tax is going to be there, we know, for the next 10 years," said Reutzel, "and after they've spent all that money on new projects, sidewalks, bike trails, they're going to have to have more money to maintain those."

But Patek said the project list produced by MoDOT, with the assistance of local planning and transportation groups, consists primarily of maintaining existing infrastructure.

"Most if not all the projects on the list are existing infrastructure that we are making better or are replacing 50- and 60-year-old infrastructure," he said. "I think it is important that Missourians understand we can't maintain the system we have with the current funding. It is getting worse, and in some areas it's quite bad. Those 2,000 bridges that Missouri has that need repairs, that will not happen without funding."

But there is at least one new project slated for Cape Girardeau County that would create a sidewalk, or nonmotorized facility, along Veterans Memorial Drive from East Main Street in Jackson to Route W in Cape Girardeau.

"To me, that ought to be, like, an extra," said Reutzel. "That's frivolous. We do not need something like that, and I just have to question the judgment of who's making all the decisions."

She also pointed out MoDOT isn't alone in its financial concerns. Across the state, families and individuals are worrying about income as well, she said, but have managed to "live within our budget." The department, Reutzel said, should do the same.

But the decreased public spending has exacerbated the transportation funding problem. As Missourians buy fewer gallons of gas or switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles, fewer dollars from fuel taxes land in the state's coffers. MoDOT said rising construction costs also have depleted its funds.

"It's clear that without new funding, our roads and bridges are going to get worse, and many of them are in bad shape now," said Patek. "The only option that people have suggested -- and it's not one that's happened in the past -- is that we take revenue from education and elsewhere in the state budget and shift it to transportation. And that really isn't a solution; that's moving from one problem to the next."

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Amendment 7 ballot language

"Should the Missouri Constitution be changed to enact a temporary sales tax of three-quarters of one percent to be used solely to fund state and local highways, roads, bridges and transportation projects for ten years, with priority given to repairing unsafe roads and bridges? This change is expected to produce $480 million annually to the state's Transportation Safety and Job Creation Fund and $54 million for local governments. Increases in the gas tax will be prohibited. This revenue shall only be used for transportation purposes and cannot be diverted for other uses."