BILLBOARD FEES CAN COVER MODOT COSTS

Because Missourians shouldn't have to continue to pay the shortage each year for the state to regulate highway billboards, a forthcoming proposal by the Missouri Department of Transportation to increase billboard permit fees warrants serious notice by the Legislature.

Last year alone it cost Missouri $651,098 to regulate billboards and other road signs, while permit fees for billboards generated only $173,235. Another $1,650 came from a $10 fee for junk yards. That left taxpayers holding the bag for a $476,213 shortage.

Billboard companies pay a fee of $28.50 per sign, and each permit is good for two years. That is pocket change considering they charge $3,000 to $5,000 a month for billboard space in some high-traffic metropolitan areas.

In an effort to break even, MoDOT has drafted legislation it wants introduced that would raise the initial permit fee to $100 for billboards up to 300 square feet and $200 for larger ones. A biennial inspection fee would be raised to $36. The new fees would take effect in August.

Most of Missouri's expenses are associated with inspecting and regulating billboards. The state has more than 13,500 signs along 4,500 miles of state-regulated highways, and regulating them is a big -- and expensive -- job.

The billboard industry doesn't oppose an increase in permit fees, saying it wants to pay its way since it has a vested interest in compliance. No argument is expected from those who oppose billboards for aesthetic reasons, including Scenic Missouri, which believes Missouri has too many billboards that make the state look trashy. Scenic Missouri believes the industry should pay its own way.

About the only foreseeable opposition might come from Gov. Mel Carnahan, but a spokesman in his office said the governor is undecided. The spokesman said Carnahan is concerned with the effect the state's Hancock Amendment, which establishes revenue lids, might have on an increase in permit fees.

That shouldn't even be a consideration when taxpayers are having to pick up almost a half-million-dollar shortage each year anyway and are subsidizing the highway billboard industry.