Transportation funding discussed at First Friday Coffee

Missouri needs a big infusion of cash for state transportation needs to build on safety improvements and smoother driving conditions achieved in recent years, two leading lawmakers told a Cape Girardeau business audience Friday.

Rep. Neal St. Onge, R-Ellisville, and Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, made a joint presentation at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee that sounded like the opening of a statewide election campaign for higher taxes. But the lawmakers, who are chairmen, respectively, of the House and Senate transportation committees, said political realities mean little will happen during the election year.

Afterward, St. Onge said he anticipates transportation interests will fund an initiative campaign rather than rely on the legislature to craft a proposal.

One key point made by the lawmakers is that while the state has made significant improvements in safety -- traffic deaths in Missouri were down 21.2 percent in 2007 compared to 2005 and the downward trend is continuing -- the capacity of the highway system, especially the interstate highways, has not been substantially altered since it was designed in the 1950s.

Another point both lawmakers emphasized is that MoDOT has worked to burnish its image with voters. It has been almost 10 years since the department revealed that a 15-year-road plan pegged to a 1992 tax increase was woefully underfunded and could not be completed in the promised time period.

"We've done a lot to hold MoDOT's feet to the fire," St. Onge said.

Missouri's location and transportation assets would make a major new contribution to infrastructure an economic spark plug for the state, Stouffer said. He noted that Missouri ports on the Mississippi River could be set up to accommodate container barges shipping overseas goods. He also said the rail hubs of Kansas City and St. Louis are among the nation's largest and that overland shipping by trucks from ports in western Mexico will escalate as cargo moves away from clogged West Coast ports in the U.S. Missouri could be a distribution and transfer point for cargo, he said.

"We are at the turning point in history," Stouffer said. "If we make the right decision now, we will be taken care of for 100 years. We have to make some investments, but we aren't reinventing the wheel."

Missouri pays for highways with a 17-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax and the sales tax on motor vehicles.

Looking ahead, state transportation officials have projected that by 2010 the money available for road maintenance and construction will fall 56 percent, from $1.3 billion to $569 million. The department will be spending money to pay bonds for road improvements finished last year, lowering the state funds available. And federal transportation funding will fall as the Highway Trust Fund is depleted, St. Onge said.

The measure that will be offered to voters will likely include a variety of taxes to keep any single segment of the population from carrying the whole burden, St. Onge said. "It will not be your typical highway funding bill."

The First Friday Coffee for April was sponsored by the Delta Companies, a highway construction firm, and Chateau Girardeau, a retirement community.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126