HIGHWAY FUNDS MUST BE PROTECTED

As John Oliver notes elsewhere on this page in a letter to the editor, the crucial consideration when discussing highway needs is money. The cost of needed projects must be carefully weighed against the available funding available for road projects.

This was certainly the understanding when U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond and two of his Senate colleagues came to Kansas City recently for a day of hearings on the multibillion-dollar, six-year federal highway funding bill that is under consideration this year.

What they heard was some good common sense from interested Missourians: Spenders of highway dollars should rank safety as the top priority, and highway funding should be spent on highways -- not other transportation needs that may be worthy of consideration but ought to be funded separately.

At stake, of course, is the federal highway trust fund, which gets its money from fuel taxes. That money has always been spent on highways. Mass transit, airport improvements and riverways all have their funding needs, but highways dollars must be protected for highways. This would be a good lesson for state planners as well.