STUDY SHOWS REVENUE FOR HIGHWAYS HIGHER THAN FORECAST

Some the most interesting pieces of information to emerge from your state capitol in the last few months comes from our good friends at the Missouri Farm Bureau. It concerns the debate over what to do with transportation in our state. First, some background.

When planners were compiling the long-since-abandoned 15-year plan back in 1992, they of course made projections as to expected revenue over the life of that plan. (Readers will recall that this was the plan on the basis of which lawmakers and then-Gov. John Ashcroft enacted the 6-cent fuel-tax increase. This writer supported the plan, although it was passed the year before my first year in office. The 15-year plan was abandoned in 1998 by the highway commission, all of whose members were appointed by the late Gov. Mel Carnahan.)

Planners forecast, in 1992, that fiscal year 2001 revenue available to the Missouri Department of Transportation would be $665 million. This estimated figure included federal money, which has been rising significantly the past decade, owing to the hard work of such federal lawmakers as U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson.

Here's the kicker: Actual receipts for fiscal 2001 aren't anywhere near $665 million. They're $335 million higher, for a total of $1 billion. To guarantee we're comparing apples to apples, this actual figure also includes federal money. So this year's receipts are actually 50 percent higher than planners projected nine years back.

Yet we're still told we're lacking in funding? We're still told we must propose new taxes and put them before the voters this year? (The bonds we passed last year are another issue entirely. We will need to find the money to cover that claim on future revenue.)

Gov. Bob Holden has appointed two distinguished Missourians to undertake a 30-day study of where we are on transportation and what we need to do about improvements as part of a comprehensive statewide plan. They are Dr. Jack Magruder, president of Truman State University, and Tom Irwin, a Democrat from St. Louis who formerly headed the Missouri Gaming Commission and today is head of Bi-State Development Agency, the St. Louis regional transportation authority.

Magruder and Irwin paid me a visit week before last to discuss their new charge from the governor. In our 30-minute session, they asked my view of the situation. I commended to them the Farm Bureau briefing paper, specifically citing this discrepancy between projected revenue and actual receipts. What I told them is that this information is either factual or it isn't. If it isn't, we need to nail the facts. If, on the other hand, this information is factual, then none of us who are now dealing with this issue can ignore it. Facts are stubborn things, as Harry Truman said, and must be dealt with.

All this represents a challenge to all in the news media. It is the job of the Fourth Estate to sort through huge amounts of often conflicting information and claims and to try to make sense of it to the voting public. We sorely need that in Jefferson City.

The two men (Irwin and Magruder) are busy doing their work, which includes research as well as talking with other stakeholders and with leaders in business and government. I will be sure to get back to you with a report on what they say.

Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and president pro tem of the Missouri Senate.