KEEP PROMISES, HIGHWAY OFFICIALS TOLD

SIKESTON -- Missouri should keep its promises when it comes to building roads and bridges.

That message was repeated again and again by state lawmakers and officials from the region who met Friday with Lee Kling, chairman of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission.

A number of Missouri Department of Transportation officials attended the meeting. They included Pat Goff, MoDOT's chief financial officer, and District 10 engineer Scott Meyer, who heads the highway department's Southeast Missouri office.

Lawmakers and others said they want to see the state keep its commitment to building roads and bridges as outlined in the 15-year plan.

The highway commission scrapped the 15-year plan last fall, saying the state didn't have enough money to pay for all the projects. In its place, the commission adopted a more limited five-year plan.

Kling said the state can't commit to any road projects beyond those outlined in the five-year plan. But he said MoDOT would continue to focus on projects in the 15-year plan.

"We're doing the best we can," he told the gathering.

MoDOT's budget is about $1.5 billion a year. About $800 million of that amount is budgeted for road and bridge construction. But Kling said the state needs more money for transportation projects.

About 100 people attended the morning meeting at a banquet hall. The gathering included state lawmakers from Southeast Missouri, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, area economic development officials, and city and county officials from the region.

The five-year plan splits road and bridge funding almost evenly between the two urban areas -- St. Louis and Kansas City -- and the rural areas.

Under the 15-year plan adopted in 1992, nearly 60 percent of the money was earmarked for road and bridge projects in Missouri's rural areas.

State Rep. Peter Myers, R-Sikeston, said the five-year plan shifts money from rural to urban projects. Myers said the state should go back to the original funding percentage.

"I won't be satisfied with anything less," he told Kling.

MoDOT's Goff said 56 percent of the construction money has gone to projects in rural areas and 44 percent to urban areas. But those percentages have varied over the years.

Since 1995, the two urban areas have received 51 percent of the funding. From 1992 to 1995, 67 percent of the funding went to rural areas, Goff said.

Kling said there has long been a split between rural and urban areas over highway funding. "It's a hot button. It's always been a hot button," he said.

The highway commission has established a committee to examine the split in transportation funds between urban and rural areas. But the 16-member committee doesn't include anyone from Southeast Missouri.

Rep. Lanie Black, R-Charleston, told Kling it was "a critical error" not to include any representation from Southeast Missouri.

Area lawmakers and others said MoDOT needs to keep its 15-year-plan promises, including the widening of U.S. 60 to four lanes across southern Missouri. Only a small part of the remaining 100 miles of two-lane U.S. 60 from Poplar Bluff to Willow Springs is slated to be widened to four lanes in the five-year plan.

Myers said MoDOT still hasn't restored its credibility with lawmakers.

The Legislature in 1992 approved a phased-in 6-cent hike in the gas tax to help fund road and bridge projects in the 15-year plan. Lawmakers want assurances that the projects in the 15-year plan will be done as the rolling five-year plan proceeds.

Some House members are pushing a measure that would ask voters to repeal the 6-cent hike in the fuel tax and then restore it specifically to construct projects on the 15-year plan. Co-sponsors include Rep. Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, and Mark Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff.

Richardson told Kling that the measure is "picking up steam" in the Legislature. But Kling replied, "I don't think that solves the problem at all."

Privately, some lawmakers said the legislative action has little chance of success. But Richardson said there is a clear message behind the legislative effort. "We want a commitment to the 15-year plan," he said.