TALENT CONTRIBUTES TO DEBATE ON HIGHWAY PLAN

It was an important event in the campaign to choose Missouri's next governor: U.S. Rep. Jim Talent of St. Louis, the likely Republican nominee, became the first to propose a way out of Missouri's highway woes. Saying the time for finger-pointing and laying blame is past, Talent is offering a bold proposal to move beyond the collapse of the 15-year highway plan and to begin the task of restoring the tattered credibility of Missouri state government.

We say all state government, because the abandonment of such a plan, which was the basis for a major 1992 fuel tax increase not voted on by the people, is a black eye for more than just the Missouri Department of Transportation and for the commission that governs it.

Talent is calling his proposal the 15-Year Plan-Plus and says it can be completed without additional taxes. He proposes to sell bonds, as 38 other states do, to fund highway and other transportation projects. Talent would ask the Legislature for authority to sell $1 billion in bonds for 10 years. He would further earmark $430 million a year in existing state and federal road funds, squeeze extra "efficiencies" from MoDOT and divert an additional $100 million from elsewhere in the state budget.

He is pledging to hold himself personally accountable if all the projects in the now-defunct 15-Year Plan aren't under contracts by 2011. All this is likely to resonate with outstate voters and probably won't hurt Talent's effort to become the first governor from the St. Louis area in 60 years.

At this early stage, it is near-impossible for laymen to judge the financial soundness of Talent's bonding proposal. It is enough for to say that Talent has made a valuable contribution to the debate that must take place over how to get Missouri back on track in transportation planning for the 21st century. That is no small accomplishment, and Talent is to be commended for taking the lead.