Inaction on highway funding bill disappointing

Its last day of the session, the Missouri Legislature passed a sweeping expansion of gun rights as well as a bill bringing the state's law on deadly force by police into compliance with a 30-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

A number of education measures were approved over the course of the session, including the establishment of a system to identify at-risk high-school students and requiring high-schoolers to pass a civics exam as a graduation requirement. And several ethics bills were approved, inclduing one requiring public officials to wait six months after their terms end before taking jobs as lobbyists and another barring public officials from doing any paid political consulting while in office.

One piece of legislation that was skipped over, however, would have asked voters to raise the fuel tax in order to generate more than $235 million annually for roads and bridges.

Local lawmakers say they were dismayed over the failure to vote on the highway funding. State Reps. Kathy Swan, Donna Lichtenegger and Holly Rehder and state Sen. Wayne Wallingford said the issue will be taken up again next year. The bill in the Senate would have asked voters to increase the tax by nearly 6 cents per gallon.

Wallingford told the Southeast Missourian his constituents "don't want a sales tax or toll roads." Rehder said she believes the legislature should add road and bridge funding from general revenue, as well as eliminate some tax credits. Swan said she and Lichtenegger also want the legislature to take a look at state tax credits with the possibility of eliminating some of them.

Many roads, highways and bridges in Missouri are in dire need of upkeep and repair. This is evident locally in areas around Cape Girardeau, Scott, Perry and Bollinger counties. While municipalities can take steps to ensure continued funding for their roads, such as Cape Girardeau's Transportation Trust Fund, we look to our Missouri lawmakers to take care of providing for the maintenance of our state roads and bridges. We join our local representatives and Wallingford in expressing our disappointment that no action was taken on this issue that affects nearly all state residents.