TRANSPORTATION NEEDS EXIST ACROSS MISSOURI

Dollars are always at a premium, especially in the operation of state government. Those agencies who provide transportation to rural residents had a chance to express their needs at a Senate hearing in Cape Girardeau last week.

We applaud the committee for listening to the needs of rural Missouri. Too often, transportation priorities and dollars seem to funnel straight to metropolitan areas. In outstate Missouri, a much smaller allocation could serve a great many people's transportation needs, especially with our growing elderly population.

Several agencies told the special transportation committee of the Missouri Senate about their programs and needs in Southeast Missouri. Transportation services for the elderly and handicapped remain a crucial need in outstate Missouri.

We hope the new light rail system, scheduled to begin operation in St. Louis next spring, will not become a black hole for state transportation dollars. Missouri can ill afford another urban financial catastrophe such as that created by school busing efforts. While the theory behind desegregation is sound, the method has been a disastrous waste of money. Outstate schools have suffered financially as nearly $1.5 billion has been spent on just two metropolitan school districts.

Metropolitan transportation is important for Missouri progress, but not at the expense of rural transportation needs.

Transportation will be a key debate in the Missouri legislature next year. The Missouri Transit Commission has asked the state to spend $6.3 billion over the next 15 years on mass transit programs in every county of the state. About half of those dollars would go to St. Louis, with a big chunk of those dollars subsidizing the new light rail system. Under the proposal, St. Louis would receive $3.9 billion over the next 15 years for light rail and bus service; Kansas City would receive $1.7 billion. Columbia, Springfield, St. Joseph and Jefferson City would share $432 million, with $308 million financing van service for elderly and the handicapped in every county.

The $6.3 billion would come from three basic sources: Nearly $1 billion would come from a new source of revenue in Missouri, about $3 billion from local subsidies, and the remainder from the federal government. It's an issue we all should be concerned about because all Missourians will no doubt foot the bill. This new source of revenue will probably be some sort of transit tax to be hammered out by the legislature and governor. Local subsidies would likely turn to taxpayers and users as well to come up with their share. The debate should be lively. The legislature has rejected statewide transit funding in the past.

Missourians have been supportive of transportation progress, and that endorsement of tax proposals has paid off in terms of better roads and bridges. Transportation continues as a crucial need into the next decade and century. The concerns and needs of outstate Missouri should play a principal role in designing transportation strategies for tomorrow.