Highway bonds deepen state budget woes

When the Missouri Legislature authorized $2.25 billion of bonds to be used by the Missouri Department of Transportation over several years, it failed to implement any sort of funding mechanism for paying back the bonds.

At the time, critics of the bond plan -- including this newspaper -- warned that MoDOT's money problems would only get worse as principal and interest payments came due on any issued bonds, taking away even more revenue that otherwise would have been used for maintenance and construction projects.

Of course, two years ago, when the legislature authorized the bond program, there was much anticipation that either the legislature or the state's voters would support an even larger-scale transportation program and vote for more taxes to pay off the whole works.

Unfortunately, legislators two years ago didn't have a crystal ball good enough to see the national economic plunge that occurred throughout 2001 or last September's terrorists attacks, which had an immediate impact on the economy and caused many Americans to tighten their grip on their pocketbooks.

With massive state budget cutbacks during the current fiscal year -- which is barely half over -- exceeding $600 million, and with little prospect that the state's budget makers can continue the extravagant increases in state spending that have occurred for more than a decade, the future of any significant increase in funding for highways and transportation are about as dim as they have ever been.

But that hasn't kept MoDOT officials from hammering away at the notion that we have to have a tax increase of some sort to keep our highways and bridges open.

So far, MoDOT has issued $650 million of the bonds authorized two years ago. Last week, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approved the issuance of another $500 million of bonds but agreed that only $100 million to $250 million will actually be used, because there won't be enough money to make the future debt payments -- unless, of course, some sort of transportation rescue plan comes along.

While claims that Missouri's transportation needs are urgently in need of a billion-dollar-a-year infusion of new money, the case has not been adequately made to taxpayers and legislators. And even if a convincing argument can be made, the question quickly becomes: Where will the money come from, given the current economy and state budget projections? Missourians do not welcome tax increases under any circumstances and approve them reluctantly when a real need is demonstrated.

But too many Missourians still remember the tax increases they have endured over the past 10 years for a highway plan that was thrown out the window by MoDOT.