Road panel OKs $254 million in highway bonds

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State transportation commissioners on Wednesday proposed the issuance of an additional $254 million in bonds to speed up construction of roads and bridges.

Their action brings the state's road-bonding authority to $900 million over a three-year span. Commissioners said that will be their stopping point, although a 1999 state law allows up to $2.25 billion in highway bonds.

"Our credit card is maxed out; without new money, we can't afford any more debt," said Henry Hungerbeeler, executive director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The $254 million bonding plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 must be submitted to the Legislature, which can reject it entirely but cannot alter the specific projects. If the Legislature takes no action, as was the case with last year's plan, then the project list is considered to be approved.

Earlier this month, members of the state Highways and Transportation Commission had given the go-ahead to submit a $500 million bond request to legislators.

List of projects

They said at the time that they planned to issue only $100 million to $250 million in bonds but that the higher level would give them the flexibility to do more if there were an unexpected influx of money.

When transportation staff mentioned the plan to lawmakers, however, they ran into opposition, said department spokesman Jeff Briggs.

"What we learned is they prefer if we just put out a fixed list of projects and commit to them, so that's what we did," Briggs said.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Morris Westfall said he was among those approached by staff about the original $500 million bonding idea.

He suggested there was no need for "putting on an act -- just be just be straightforward" about the plans.

"My approach was do what you can afford and plan to do, and I think after they thought about it, they pretty well agreed," said Westfall, R-Halfway.