Local state senator backs fuel-tax measure; two House members question whether voters would approve a hike

Hiking Missouri’s fuel tax would provide needed revenue to maintain and fix the state’s roads and bridges, state Sen. Wayne Wallingford said Thursday.

The Missouri Senate earlier this week voted 21 to 10 to put a measure before voters in November to raise the motor-fuel tax by 5.9 cents per gallon.

Wallingford voted for the measure, which now awaits action in the Missouri House.

Wallingford described himself as a fiscal conservative.

“No one likes anything to go up,” he said.

But the Cape Girardeau Republican said he believes the Missouri Department of Transportation has done its best to cut costs.

“MoDOT has saved over $600 million in the last three or four years,” he said.

“We are down to the bone now,” Wallingford maintained.

The proposed fuel tax would raise an additional $235 million annually, including $70 million in added funding for local governments to use for street improvements, he said.

Under the proposal, the fuel tax would climb from its current 17 cents per gallon to 22.9 cents per gallon.

Wallingford stressed the Senate action would leave the decision up to the voters.

“I am not voting for a tax increase. I am voting for people to have a voice,” he said.

The state senator said Missouri has not raised the gas tax since 1996. That increase was part of a phased-in hike approved by voters in 1992, he said.

Since then, road-construction costs have increased dramatically, he said.

If voters were to approve the measure, the tax burden would be shared by nonresidents who drive on Missouri’s roads.

“About 50 percent of the people who use our highways are from out of state,” Wallingford said.

Improved roads would reduce vehicle-maintenance costs for motorists because tires would last longer, and fewer wheel realignments would be needed, he said.

State Reps. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson, and Kathy Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, said they don’t know whether voters have an appetite for a tax increase. The two lawmakers are uncertain whether the House will approve the Senate measure to put the issue on the ballot.

Lichtenegger remains skeptical about MoDOT spending.

“MoDOT has to do a whole lot to show that they can be trusted,” she said.

The Jackson Republican said the agency needs to spend its money on roads and bridges and not hiking trails.

Swan said, “I don’t object to putting something on the ballot for voters to decide.”

But she insisted the state needs to look at using a combination of funding mechanisms, including possibly turning Interstate 70 into a toll road and even privatizing some roadways. She said a tax hike might be a hard sell for voters right now.

“We have had a struggling economy for years. I don’t know that we are seeing a recovery,” she said.

Swan said a fuel-tax increase would be preferable to a sales-tax hike.

“Voters already have spoken on that,” she said.

Voters in 2014 rejected a measure to increase the sales tax to fund roads and bridges.

The Cape Girardeau lawmaker acknowledged Missouri’s roads and bridges are deteriorating.

“We do need to do something,” she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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