$24 BILLION SOUNDS LIKE A HIGHWAY SCARE TACTIC

The Missouri Department of Transportation's latest estimate to fix the state's deteriorating highways and bridges has been put at $19.7 billion to $24.1 billion, a dramatic increase over an estimate of just eight years ago.

That 1992 estimate, included in a 15-year road-building plan, was just $5 billion. Now the range of the department's repair estimate is almost as much as the total estimated cost of repairs in 1992.

To further complicate matters, a highway department planner who presented the revised estimate to the Highways and Transportation Commission last week says the new figures could alter how the state spends money on road repairs and construction. It could mean a departure from the practice of splitting available money evenly between urban and rural regions and instead distribute the money based on the location of the most pressing needs

If that happens, the department will open a new can of worms in a state where taxpayers are accustomed to money being spent at least somewhat proportionately between urban and outstate regions. Not everyone is always happy with where the money is spent, and disregarding proportional spending wouldn't rest well with rural Missourians who see massive construction and repair projects going on in the state's big cities and little happening where they live.

What should be of most concern to Missourians, however, is the financial picture the highway department is painting for itself. The commission has embarked upon a bond-financing plan as a quick fix for Missouri's highways. Fifty-eight road projects will be funded with the first $250 million in bonds, and another $500 million cold be issued next year and possibly $500 million each of the following three years.

That all ads up to $2.25 billion in bonds that could be issued for road and bridge construction, and no one has determined specifically how they will be paid off.

With repair estimates at four to five times those of eight years ago, one wonders what the department is basing its estimates on. If in fact the cost of repairs will be as high as the department says, it is apparent the department has not kept its system adequately maintained since 1992.

With the higher repair estimates and the spend-now, pay-later bonding plan, it is apparent the highway department is preparing Missourians for a proposal to generate more tax money. If it does, taxpayers will deserve to be told why the state has allowed its road system to fall into the state of disrepair that could cost $24 billion to fix.