MISSOURI A `DONOR STATE' FOR HIGHWAY FUNDS

Alaska and Hawaii each receive more than 4 dollars for every dollar they send to the Federal Highway Trust Fund.

Washington, D.C., receives a 3.8 to 1 return for its trust fund dollars.

Two Northeast states -- Massachusetts and Rhode Island -- each get better than 200 percent returns on their federal highway funds.

Missouri is a "donor state" when it comes to distribution of federal highway trust fund dollars back to the states.

What this means, said Charles Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, is that for each dollar Missourians send to the trust fund, the state receives only 80 cents back.

There are a number of donor states -- 23, compared to 28 recipient states -- in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act (ISTEA) of 1991, which expires this month.

"Missouri is `road kill' when it comes to the fairness of the current formula which is being used to distribute the highway trust fund dollars," said Kruse, who was in Cape Girardeau Friday. "But, Congress is currently rewriting the ISTEA, and some changes could result in millions of dollars more for Missouri."

The administration's proposed successor to ISTEA is NEXTEA, the National Economic Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act.

"We (the farm bureau) are distributing petitions statewide to request better treatment for Missouri in the distribution of the highway trust funds," said Kruse.

The petitions were first introduced at the Missouri State Fair.

"With the help of county farm bureaus and other agricultural organizations, we hope to collect several thousands of signatures to be delivered this month," said Kruse.

Four members of the Missouri's Congressional delegation serve on committees responsible for the reauthorization of ISTEA -- Sen. Christopher Bond, Congresswomen Pat Danner and Jo Ann Emerson, and Congressman Roy Blunt.

Funds for ISTEA, which authorizes federal and mass transit projects that include everything from new highways to Clean Air Act compliance projects, come from states in the form of federal fuel taxes.

"Every time you fill up at the neighborhood service stations, you're putting money into ISTEA," said Kruse.

But not all of those funds come back to Missouri.

The Show Me state receives only 80 cents per dollar, while Alaska receives a payback of $4.91 for every dollar it invests.

In Missouri, highway and bridge funding has received special attention in light of a governor-appointed Total Transportation Commission (TTC) which is proposing additional taxes, while discrediting the state's current 15-year highway and bridge plan.

The 1991 ISTEA legislation was a six-year, $157 billion behemoth, designed to develop a national intermodal transportation system through increased highway, bridge and infrastructure investment.

These funds are redistributed to the states, based upon a detailed formula. Congress will soon start debating the NEXTEA program.