OFFICIAL: ROAD PLAN FUNDING ADEQUATE; PROJECTS TO GET ANNUAL REVIEWS

The Missouri Department of Transportation's new five-year road improvement plan isn't saddled with more projects than funding, says the agency's chief financial officer.

The official, Pat Goff, initially said Monday that the plan was "over-programmed." Several hours later, he said that wasn't the case.

He said MoDOT plans to spend $4.3 billion over the next five years, including $878 million in the current fiscal year.

There are more than 900 specific projects in the five-year plan that the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission recently adopted when it scrapped the 15-year plan, Goff said.

In addition, some money has been set aside for unspecified projects to meet safety, road and bridge preservation and economic development needs.

Goff said it is possible that MoDOT's five-year plan will fall short of its project goals. But he said the list of projects on the drawing board will be revised annually.

Wayne Muri, who headed MoDOT from 1986 to 1994, has said that a 15-year highway plan, unveiled in 1992, was "over-programmed" by 10 to 15 percent. He said that accounted for the apparent initial shortfall of $1.4 billion.

Muri said the department routinely packed more projects than money into a long-term construction program.

Cape Girardeau lawyer John Oliver Jr., who served on the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission from 1989 to 1995, said there never was any assurance there was enough money to build all the projects in the plan.

He said state highway officials were clear about that point from the start.

The budget shortfall shouldn't come as a surprise. "There is always a shortfall," Oliver said.

Muri said the planning practice made sense.

MoDOT isn't following the same scenario this time. "You don't start out overbudgeting," Goff said. "You don't put 110 percent of projects in a five-year plan."

But also on Monday morning, Goff said: "In a one-year planning horizon, you definitely overprogram. You build in enough flexibility so you are not short of work."

Later in the day, Goff said the department hasn't included more projects in the five-year plan than can be funded.

He said the agency has projects on the drawing board that could be moved up in the timetable if other projects are delayed. Those other projects are included in the five-year plan as opposed to being additions.

"We haven't added 10 percent to $4.3 billion," Goff said.

While the highway commission has dismissed the 15-year plan as flawed, Oliver continues to defend it.

It remains a good plan, Oliver said, explaining that Gov. Mel Carnahan's administration scrapped the plan to funnel more money to transportation projects in St. Louis and Kansas City.

"This is just a power play to move money into the metropolitan areas," he said, adding that the 15-year plan wasn't developed on the basis of a rural-urban division.

"The 15-year plan was based on the real needs of Missouri drivers and the needs of towns of 5,000 and more to have a chance to survive," he said.

Missouri's small towns need access to four-lane highways to survive, Oliver said.

A 6-cent hike in the state's motor fuel tax was designed to help fund the 15-year plan.

Both Oliver and Muri said the tax hike approved by the Missouri Legislature stipulated that the money raised by the 6 cents was earmarked for road and bridge construction projects.

But Muri said MoDOT didn't separate that revenue from the rest of the state gas tax money and other state and federal funding that went to the agency.

Still, Muri said, the agency under his leadership was committed to spending the tax money on actual construction work as opposed to administrative expenses.

Goff said lawmakers earmarked the money for non-administrative purposes, which includes both maintenance and construction.