Motor fuel tax receipts drop significantly

Every time you put gasoline in your car’s tank, a portion of your purchase goes to the Missouri Department of Revenue in the form of a motor fuel tax.

And if you’re like most drivers in Missouri, you’ve been buying less gasoline because you haven’t been driving as much as you did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the state’s motor fuel tax revenue has dropped significantly in recent months.

A portion of that tax is distributed monthly to cities and counties throughout the state in the form of County Aid Road Trust, or CART, funding to help pay for construction, maintenance and repairs of roads, bridges and highways throughout the state, and for the second straight month the CART payment received by Cape Girardeau County is lower than it was the month before.

At Monday’s County Commission meeting, County Treasurer Roger Hudson said the June CART payment to the county was $64,923.01, almost $12,000 less than May’s payment and 29.9% lower than the $92,595.35 the county received in June 2019.

“It’s only been in the $60,000 range a couple of times ever,” Hudson said following the meeting. The last time, he said, was in February 2009 when the CART payment to Cape County was $65,644.71. Since 2015, monthly CART payments to the county never fell below $80,000, with most in the $90,000 to $100,000 range.

May’s CART payment to the county of $76,515.77 was more than $15,000 lower than the April payment and 20.9% lower than the county received in May 2019 when the county received $96,744.52.

“This is a pretty good indication people aren’t driving to work ... or aren’t working,” Hudson said.

The state’s 17-cent per gallon fuel tax is the largest single component of the CART program, which has been part of the Missouri Constitution since 1962. In addition to motor fuel taxes, the program also receives a share of the state’s vehicle sales tax and a portion of state license fees. Funds collected through the CART program help fund state highway projects and are distributed using a formula based on populations and miles of roadways in cities and counties throughout the state.

In 2019, Cape Girardeau County received more than $1.1 million in CART funding. So far this year, CART payments to the county are running 7% behind last year’s pace.

Asked whether the CART funding decline concerned him, county highway administrator Allen Friedrich said, “Right now, we’re just watching what we spend, but we always do that.”

While some road and bridge work could be impacted by a potential reduction in CART funding, it appears at least one project won’t be affected.

The County Commission on Monday approved a recommendation from Friedrich to begin the process of replacing a bridge on County Road 420 spanning Caney Fork Creek in the northwestern part of the county. The bridge, built in 1965, was recently determined to be “deficient” by the Missouri Department of Transportation and its load limit was reduced to five tons.

According to First District Commissioner Paul Koeper, federal funds are available to help pay for a new bridge, which he estimated will cost in the neighborhood of $200,000.

“I don’t see us advertising for bids (for the bridge) until next spring and having it built next summer,” he said.

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