Toll roads again sought as option for Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- While sponsoring legislation that would allow the construction of toll roads and bridges, state Rep. Lanie Black says he isn't certain Missourians are ready to embrace the idea.

But with voters seemingly hostile to tax increases, as evidenced by the resounding statewide defeat of a transportation tax package in 2002, Black says there aren't many funding options left for pursuing certain costly road and bridge projects.

"I don't know what the answer is, but I think to try to find an answer is really important," said Black, R-Charleston. "If toll roads are part of the equation, that's good."

Black, a member of the House Transportation and Motor Vehicles Committee, is sponsoring two toll measures. One would ask voters to amend the Missouri Constitution to authorize toll roads and bridges. The other is enabling legislation to implement construction of toll projects should voters ratify the amendment in November. Similar Republican-sponsored legislation has been filed in the Senate.

Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Jeff Briggs said the issue would be "a fairly important element" of the first-ever State of Transportation address agency director Henry Hungerbeeler will deliver to a joint session of the Missouri Legislature on Jan. 28.

Winning toll authority has been a top goal for MoDOT in recent years. Last year, however, department officials declared the issue dead just two months into the legislative session.

While interest in the concept appears to be growing among lawmakers, supporters are uncertain if it is sufficient to put a proposal on the ballot. Missourians rejected toll-road amendments by wide margins in 1970 and 1992.

"It's something new to us, and I have some reservations," said state Rep. Gayle Kingery, R-Poplar Bluff.

Kingery, who also sits on the House transportation committee, said a prudent course might be to start with a single toll road as a pilot project to see if it works as a funding mechanism. Kingery suggested the long-delayed upgrade of U.S. 67 to a divided four-lane route from Fredericktown to Poplar Bluff as a possible candidate.

Black's companion bill, which wouldn't take effect if the amendment failed, specifies six projects that could be pursued as toll facilities, including a new Mississippi River bridge on U.S. 60 connecting Mississippi County to Wickliffe, Ky.

"I know what that could mean to us, and I'm just looking out to be sure that our area is covered if and when tolling ever becomes a reality and if and when that bridge becomes a real possibility," Black said.

The bill also calls for new toll bridges spanning the Mississippi River at St. Louis and the Missouri River at Kansas City. It also authorizes the reconstruction of Interstate 70 from St. Louis to Kansas City and a similar overhaul of Interstate 44 from St. Louis to the Oklahoma border.

Any future toll projects would have to be approved by the legislature.

Converting I-70 and I-44 into toll roads would also require a change in federal law, which currently prohibits putting tolls on existing interstate highways. U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., is working to include such a change in federal highway legislation being considered by Congress.

Black's measures are HJR 34 and HBO 857.

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