NOW HERE'S A HIGHWAY PLAN WORTH DEBATING

Give the state senator from Sedalia credit for coming up with a plan to pay for highways and other transportation needs in the years to come.

Without a doubt, Sen. Jim Mathewson's plan will see considerable change before it's all over. But at least Missourians now have something to talk about that moves us closer to the goal of funding transportation.

Mathewson, of course, was pretty much compelled to be the one to stick his neck out in Jefferson City.

He was the one who pushed hard and successfully for legislative approval last year of $2.25 billion in bond authorization for highways.

What the bonding plan lacked, of course, was any mechanism for paying off the bonds and the massive amount of interest.

So legislators in Jefferson City sat back and waited.

The waiting game has been going on for a long time.

It started after MoDOT decided the state's 15-year highway plan was financially bust, thanks to faulty estimating of the costs for all those highway projects that enticed voters to approve an increase in the Missouri fuel tax.

Everyone who buys gasoline or diesel fuel in Missouri is, of course, still paying the extra tax even though the 15-year plan has been scrapped.

Indeed, MoDOT has pretty much said it can barely keep up with maintenance of the state's vast road system, much less take on very many ambitious new projects, without a huge injection of new money.

Missourians also waited while a Total Transportation Committee tried to come up with a comprehensive plan for the state. But no one wanted to take responsibility for the most crucial component: paying for the plan.

And Missourians waited last year as legislators held out until the closing hours of the session to approve the bond plan with no way to pay off those bonds.

Mathewson's proposal seeks money from two major sources.

One is to keep the 2 cents of the fuel tax that was supposed to expire in 2008 -- after the 15-year plan was completed. In addition, the senator's plan would impose an additional 2 cents of fuel tax, generating an estimated $60 million a year in additional funding.

Another is to increase the state's general sales tax, currently 4 cents on every dollar spent for taxable items, to 5 cents. This would produce an estimated $614 million.

One part of Mathewson's plan that has little to do with paying for highways is changing how MoDOT's director is picked.

For as long as anyone can remember, the director has been hired by the highway commission whose members are appointed by the governor.

During most of those years, the director was called the chief engineer, which meant he was someone who was a highway department veteran with engineering skills. The current director is an outsider who was hired for his administrative skills.

Already, there have been suggestions for letting the governor pick the head of the highway department.

But Missourians will need to decide if there's really a good reason to change how this person is picked.

For many, many years, the highway department's independence served it in good stead. Any shift to politics in the top administration, either through appointments or election, would likely do little to help the department overcome public mistrust or win voter confidence to approve huge spending plans and the funds to pay for them.

It will be interesting to see how Missourians react to Mathewson's plan. It will be even more interesting to see if they come up with some ideas of their own.

In any event, there is something to argue about on the table.

Let the debate begin.