Spend highway dollars where needed most

It's one thing to raise the revenue needed to build roads and bridges and maintain those already in existence. If Proposition B, a plan to raise sales and fuel taxes, had been approved last month, where to spend the extra revenue would have been guided by project lists developed prior to the Aug. 6 vote.

It's another thing to have significantly less money than you need while trying to decide how to spend what you have.

Proposition B was overwhelmingly defeated, which leaves the Missouri Department of Transportation facing two stark realities:

1. No new source of major funding for transportation is likely to be available anytime soon.

2. MoDOT has to use existing revenue to do the best job possible in maintaining our highway system.

As might be expected, lingering arguments about how to best distribute available highway funding are heating up. Again.

MoDOT may well have contributed to this ongoing debate when it admitted in 1998 that its 15-year construction plan didn't have enough money despite a 6-cent increase in fuel taxes.

Over the years, there have been questions about how well MoDOT adheres to its own spending guidelines.

The 15-year plan adopted in 1992 called for 60 percent of highway funds to go to rural areas, where most of the states deficient roads and bridges are located. Then came the 50-50 split -- half to rural areas and half to the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas -- in 1998. In 2000, the Highways and Transportation Commission rejected a plan that would have given 63 percent of highway funds to rural areas.

All the while, there have been accusations that this area or that area was either getting more than its fair share or not getting enough funding for highways.

Now highway commissioners are expected to adopt new spending guidelines at their Sept. 14 meeting. Southeast Missouri's commissioner, Duane Michie of Hayti, Mo., says funding should be on the basis of need, not geography.

He's absolutely correct. Balance in highway funding isn't achieved by trying to spread limited resources around so everyone gets an equal share -- whatever equal means. Neither is funding equity achieved by catering to the interests of special interests or powerful politicians, although it is a reality that both will exert an enormous amount of influence.

MoDOT ought to know where the biggest highway problems are. It ought to have the expertise to rank those problem areas. It ought to tackle the worst problems first.

There very likely is no highway spending plan that will please every area of the state. But a needs-based plan will be the easiest to justify and will serve the most pressing needs best.

Over the long run, a plan that tackles projects needed the most will give many Missourians the confidence to support requests for future funding increases.