ROADS PLAN WILL REQUIRE TAX HIKE, BACKERS SAY

The road to Missouri's transportation future could be paved with a gasoline tax hike.

"It is going to be a hard, hard sell," said Jay Wunderlich, executive director of the Taxpayers Research Institute of Missouri.

The institute is a division of Associated Industries of Missouri, a statewide business group based in Jefferson City.

Missourians were promised improved and safer roads under the Department of Transportation's 15-year plan.

But that plan faltered largely because of inadequate funding. Wunderlich said state officials have indicated it could cost $14 billion to put the plan back on track.

Improving Missouri's roads and other transportation systems would require a tax measure, says the head of the state's Total Transportation Commission.

It also could involve toll roads and other funding mechanisms, said S. Lee Kling of St. Louis, who chairs the commission.

But the commission has yet to settle on exactly how to pay for improvements.

Kling said the commission will consider cost issues when it meets in Jefferson City Tuesday. The final plan will be presented to Gov. Mel Carnahan on June 17, he said.

So far, no price tag has been put to the commission's "vision" as Kling calls it.

But the plan includes everything from upgrading regional airports to expanding mass transit in St. Louis and Kansas City.

The commission wants railroad grade crossings improved for safety reasons as well as to reduce traffic congestion.

The plan still would focus heavily on road improvements, Kling said.

Besides chairing the special board, Kling also serves on the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission, which oversees the state's Department of Transportation.

Carnahan appointed the Total Transportation Commission last summer to develop a statewide plan for improvements.

The 35-member commission held a series of meetings around the state, including one in Cape Girardeau last November.

The advisory group is holding four more hearings, beginning Wednesday in Kansas City and ending in Joplin on May 28. The other two hearings will be in St. Louis and Moberly.

Joplin and Moberly weren't visited during the first set of hearings.

Under the state constitution, road improvements would have to be funded through a gasoline tax, Wunderlich said.

Even if the state would issue bonds to pay for improvements, it would have to depend on gas-tax money to retire the bonds, he said.

Wunderlich said a gas tax is the only fair way to pay for road improvements.

The state must put checks and balances for accountability if it hopes to pass a tax increase, he said.

State lawmakers likely won't want to support a tax increase, particularly since the state is already over the tax-revenue limit under the Hancock Amendment, Wunderlich said.

A survey conducted by Associated Industries earlier this year found business leaders nearly evenly divided over whether to support a gas-tax hike.

Forty-eight percent said they would support a tax hike while 44 percent said no. Another 8 percent didn't respond.