No apology required

Like all state-funded agencies, the Missouri Department of Transportation is struggling to find ways to keep thousands of miles of highways in good shape while building bridges.

One cloud hanging over the highway department's head is the so-called 15-year plan adopted in 1992 when voters approved a 6-cent increase in the state fuel tax. Six years later, MoDOT officials said the ambitious plan -- it called for, among other things, a four-lane highway to every town over 5,000 population -- was underfunded by about $1 billion a year.

The outcries that accompanied the admission that the plan was out of the reach of Missouri's budget resources were valid. After all, motorists on Missouri's highways had been paying the extra fuel tax in anticipation that the projects in the 15-year plan would be completed. Surely the highway department knew in 1992 that it's projections were too optimistic. Or MoDOT planners made a really huge mistake.

Either way, the issue of the 15-year plan has been beat to death. MoDOT has taken its lumps. But continuing to whine about a plan that failed won't build highways and bridges. Nor will apologies from MoDOT.

That's what a special citizens advisory board recommended. The board was appointed after voters last year rejected a $500 million transportation tax plan. When the report was formally presented last week, the highway commission didn't jump at the opportunity to apologize for the botched 15-year plan, as suggested -- although the MoDOT director, in anticipation of the advisory board's report, had already started apologizing in a 14-city tour last month.

Public apologies by government officials and political candidates are in vogue. Republicans demanded that President Clinton formally apologize for the Monica Lewinsky affair. California's governor-elect, Arnold Schwarzenegger, apologized during his campaign for any groping that women might have found offensive. Some black Americans want an official apology -- as well as reparations -- for the enslavement of their ancestors.

While saying you're sorry is appropriate in some situations, the use of public apologies by government officials has become a shield behind which they can hide without ever having to address real problems. When the public allows a public official's apology to put an end to the debate over an issue that affects thousands or millions of Americans, those citizens are denied an effective resolution to whatever problems they are having with government.

Millions of Missourians are driving on bad roads and are in need of more highway projects right now, but there's not enough money to do everything on everyone's wish list. An apology for an 11-year-old plan isn't going to change that. The advisory board's report also included some sound recommendations for generating new revenue, including toll roads. This is the kind of practical solution that will have to be considered as Missouri finds ways to meet its transportation needs.