Let voters decide about tolls on highways

The road to getting tolls for highways in Missouri has been bumpy and is perhaps one that won't -- and maybe even shouldn't -- come to fruition.

But that doesn't mean it should be disregarded out of hand.

Missouri transportation officials have said it repeatedly in recent years: Many of the roads we have are crumbling and new ones are needed to add to a state that already boasts the nation's seventh largest highway system.

Is the answer toll roads?

The Missouri Department of Transportation thinks so. That has become a top priority, especially after voters last year overwhelming defeated Proposition B, a tax plan that would have raised $500 million for road projects through higher state fuel and sales taxes.

So toll roads seems like the next option, right? Not so.

The Missouri Legislature has little interest in even looking at the issue of toll roads.

A MoDOT official recently told the Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission that arguments in favor of the idea have "fallen on deaf ears" in the legislature.

Part of lawmakers' skepticism surely comes from voters' rejection of toll roads in the past, which they did soundly in 1971 and 21 years later in 1992.

We need to take into consideration two of our neighbors to know that it's an option worth looking at. Illinois and Kansas have hundreds of miles of toll roads. Missouri is among 24 states that do not have any toll roads.

Both Kansas and Kentucky spend more per mile of road than Missouri does, and some motorists say both states enjoy better quality roads.

The Missouri Department of Transportation has no power to build or operate toll roads. Any public toll road would have to be approved by voters.

A 1990 state law allows transportation districts or corporations to use tolls. The first such project, a $24 million toll bridge across the lake of the Ozarks, opened in 1998, and apparently it is a success.

Tolls work in other places. It won't cost anything to consider legislation to permit highway tolls, and it might even make sense to voters if it's presented in the right way. Even if it doesn't, what's the harm in letting the voters decide?

Missouri transportation commissioner Ollie Gates of Kansas City seems to make a lot of sense: "We're going to have to look at some innovative ways to do the things we need to do," he said. "If they won't pass [Proposition B], let's look at toll roads, and if they won't pass that, let's look at another alternative."

In other words, look at all the options and make a decision that best serves everyone. Ignoring options that could be viable only exacerbates the problem.