Missouri moves forward on transportation, but hasn't arrived yet

Missouri Department of Transportation photo

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Missouri lawmakers pumped a lot of money into transportation during the legislative session this year.

But, did they solve the transportation problem?

House Speaker Elijah Haahr, a Republican from Springfield, says the legislature made progress.

“I will say, we will never ‘solve’ the transportation problem,” Haahr tells reporters during a recent trip to St. Joseph. “What we did is we provided what I think is the first full, significant move forward on transportation since the early 1990s as far as providing new money.”

The legislature allocated $100 million dollars in General Revenue funds for bridge repair, the first time lawmakers used the regular budget to fix roads and bridges. Lawmakers also authorized $301 million in bonds to repair 215 of the state’s worst bridges.

“Half a billion dollars is a pretty big move on the transportation (issue,” Haahr says. “It won’t solve the problem, but it helps significantly in a lot of the bridges that we need to repair and a lot of the roads the we need to fix.”

Haahr says it was no insignificant move for legislators to take money from the General Revenue Fund for transportation. Missouri traditionally has paid for roads and bridges through monies generated by its gas tax.

“Overall, we’re going to put about half a billion dollars into transportation over the next few years. I think that will be hugely beneficial towards shoring up a lot of the bridges in the state,” Haahr says. “But, again, that’s going to help us for a few years. There’s more work to be done in that space.”

Haahr says legislators will continue to have to find creative ways to fund transportation needs, because it seems apparent Missouri voters aren’t interested in raising taxes to repair roads and bridges. Haahr says there’s no real way to get around a history of Missourians rejecting tax increases.

“If you look at (the elections, it was a gas tax that failed last time. Before that, a sales tax failed four years earlier. There have been four separate cigarette taxes that have been on the ballot. All four have failed,” Haahr recounts. “I think Missourians are happy with where our tax level is and so the trick then is figuring out how can we generate either additional monies or find efficiencies in the system to continue to provide the transportation network we have.”

Haahr suggests lawmakers will have to be creative, such as this past legislative session when legislators allocated General Revenue money to transportation for the first time and approved bonds to repair deteriorating bridges.

Missouri legislators approved a bridge improvement plan proposed by Gov. Mike Parson, but with significant changes. Legislators made issuing the bonds contingent on winning a federal grant to replace the Missouri River bridge on I-70 at Rocheport. Missouri did receive the grant.

Lawmakers cut the $350 million bond proposal backed by the governor to $301 million, allocating $50 million in General Revenue money to fix an additional 35 bridges. The bonds will be repaid over seven years with regular state revenues, not dedicated road funds.

Parson rolled out the bridge bonding plan at the start of the legislative session in January after voters in November defeated the 10-cent a gallon fuel tax increase which would have raised $288 million annually for state highways and $123 million for city and county roads.

The Missouri Department of Transportation has said there is a $745 million annual funding gap in state road and bridge needs.