Transportation tax increase unlikely

By Marc Powers ~ Southeast Missourian

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Though a top issue in the General Assembly in recent years, a significant tax increase for transportation is unlikely to make much progress in the current legislative session, key lawmakers said Thursday.

Instead more attention will be given to structural changes within the Missouri Department of Transportation and its independent governing commission.

However, lawmakers who spoke on the subject during a transportation conference sponsored by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce said specific proposals for doing so remain to be determined.

House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, said her party would push for ending the so-called diversion of fuel tax revenue to other state agencies. Republicans made the diversion an issue during last year's elections.

However, the new chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee -- state Sen. Jon Dolan, R-St. Charles -- noted that the bulk of the diverted revenue goes to agencies that are constitutionally entitled to it -- the Department of Revenue and the State Highway Patrol. The amount of the diversion lawmakers could end without asking voters to change the constitution is a "pittance" Dolan said.

"We have to be up front with people about that," Dolan said.

Approximately $195 million in fuel tax revenue goes to agencies other than MoDOT, but the revenue department and highway patrol combine for $175 million of that amount. However, Dolan said those two agencies could be receiving fuel tax money for purposes beyond what the constitution says they can use it for.

Dolan said action on the issue will probably have to wait until the fiscal year 2005 budget, which lawmakers will work on next year, to avoid adding to the already difficult problem of balancing the FY 2004 budget.

With Missouri voters having rejected a $483 million transportation tax package in August by a nearly 3-to-1 margin, few lawmakers see any point in asking voters to reconsider the issue so soon.

House Minority Floor Leader Mark Abel, D-Festus, said asking voters for a much smaller tax hike would serve little purpose given the scope of the problem except to unrealistically raise expectations.

"The massive infrastructure problems in this state will not be cured with a 3- or 4-cent fuel tax that voters might agree to," Abel said.

However, Abel said that until MoDOT receives a funding boost, the state's roads and bridges will deteriorate even further, making the problem more costly to fix. Department officials say they need at least $1 billion a year in additional funds to address all of Missouri's transportation needs.

mpowers@semissourian.com

(573) 635-4608