State taxes and fees mount into millions from new laws

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Over the next few months, the efforts of Missouri lawmakers will become law. And little by little, Missourians will start to see their taxes and fees go up.

The roughly 200 laws that Holden finished signing Friday contain higher fees for vehicle and driver's licenses, as well as traffic tickets and court cases.

They impose new taxes on wine and pharmacies. They extend numerous existing taxes -- that otherwise would have expired -- on such things as water, gasoline and nursing homes.

The total bill to taxpayers: about $450 million.

But it could be even more.

That's because Missouri's new laws also provide voters the opportunity to tax themselves further -- to the benefit of their roads, regional jails, community colleges, fire departments, ambulance districts and tourism efforts.

Many Missourians interviewed by The Associated Press weren't aware of some of the taxes or fees -- and weren't necessarily opposed to them on a case-by-case basis.

That's partly because the taxes come in small increments -- an extra $5 for a vehicle license, a little more than a penny on a bottle of wine, somewhere between 66 cents and $2 for most public water system users.

"Five dollars is not going to be a big deal," said Judy Busby of Jefferson City, who next time she renews the licenses for her truck and sports utility vehicle will have to pay an extra $5 each in fees. "It's not going to make or break us."

Little thought given

State Sen. Larry Rohrbach said Busby's reaction is precisely why lawmakers are so willing to keep adding small fees to government services.

"I think the reason we do them is that folks don't think too much about it," said Rohrbach, a conservative member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who can't seek re-election this year because of term limits.

In fact, Rohrbach himself wasn't too familiar with the water tax. Under a 1992 law, public water customers pay an annual tax of between 66 cents and $2 that the Department of Natural Resources uses for water quality testing and the salaries of some employees.

The tax, which raises $2.4 million a year, was extended for another five years in 1997 and was due to expire Sept. 1. But lawmakers extended it another five years.

"I doubt if most people pay too much attention to it," said Jerry Lane, director of DNR's public drinking water program. "You know how it is, you get so many taxes."

The extension of the water tax highlights a popular trend in the legislature. Many taxes or fees are originally passed with expiration dates. Then the end is delayed several years -- or simply made permanent.

Perhaps the most prominent example is a 1992 law that phased in a 6-cents-a-gallon motor fuel tax. The tax increase was to expire in 2008.

But this year, lawmakers made the tax permanent. And they referred another 4-cent fuel tax increase to the Aug. 6 ballot. The latest proposed fuel tax would expire in 2012 unless renewed by voters.

Rohrbach, who opposes the transportation tax, considers the expiration date a joke.

MoDOT "10 years down the road will act like there's no tomorrow if you take it away," he said.