Supporters stump for transportation sales tax

Proponents of a state transportation sales tax kicked off their "Yes on Amendment 7" campaign today, touting it as the best option to fund needed transportation projects while placing the least financial burden on the working class.

The amendment goes before Missouri voters Aug. 5, and if approved would implement a three-quarter-cent sales tax with a 10-year sunset. The majority of the funds would go toward statewide transportation projects, but cities and counties would each be allocated 5 percent for local transportation needs. The proposal could bring in as much as $534 million annually by some estimates.

The Missouri Department of Transportation has created a draft priority list that includes road, bridge and public transportation projects that would be funded by the tax. The draft list will be reviewed, and the final list will be approved after a July 9 commission meeting in Jefferson City, Missouri, to be available for voter perusal before the August election.

The majority of the projects on the draft list for Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry and Scott counties include bridge repairs, road resurfacing and interchange improvements.

Rudy Farber, former chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, is the co-chairman for Missourians for Safe Transportation and New Jobs. He said in a Monday phone conference that more than 2,000 bridges across the state are structurally deficient and as many as 800 could close unless they receive extensive repairs.

The state's roads could also use some shaping up, Farber said. More than 20,000 miles of roads don't have shoulders.

"We have the seventh-largest highway system in the country, but we rank 40th in funding per mile," he said.

Critics of the amendment have said a sales tax is not the best option to fund transportation repairs because of the financial burden it would place on those living on fixed incomes. Opposition groups have suggested fuel tax increases or toll roads as a way to ensure the burden is fairly distributed to all who use the roads, including the trucking industry.

Farber and Bill McKenna, former member of the state's transportation commission and co-chairman and treasurer for Missourians for Safe Transportation and New Jobs, said the sales tax does not apply to "necessities of life" and therefore will not burden working-class families.

The proposed sales tax would not be applied to groceries, prescription drugs, fuel, rent or utilities -- items that Farber and McKenna argue make up the majority of the budget for people with fixed incomes. The amendment also prohibits the state from raising the gas tax or implementing toll roads during the sales tax's life span.

Farber said increasing fuel taxes might actually place more financial burden on those with lower incomes. If the trucking industry is taxed via higher diesel fuel prices, he said those costs would be carried on to the groceries and other items they ship, meaning the public would feel the pinch at the pump and at the grocery store.

The group also said in a follow-up email that to raise $480 million annually for transportation, the Diesel tax would have to increase from 17 cents to 90 cents per gallon, or the gas tax paid by other drivers would need to double to 35 cents.

Gov. Jay Nixon has come out against the transportation tax. McKenna called it "a bump in the road" but said it wouldn't deter the group from its goal.

"Personally, I would rather have [Nixon] on our team, but I also know that roads and bridges need to be fixed and we're going to move forward," he said.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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