By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri’s gas tax is moving up.
And the immediate past chair of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission says that’s a good thing.
Former commission chair, Tom Waters of Orrick, says Missouri transportation struggled from a lack of funding when he came onto the commission more than seven years ago. The increase of $460 million annually from the 2 ½ cent increase in the fuel tax, plus a greater influx of federal funds has made a big difference.
“I’ve seen a lot of improvements in our budget, which translates into improvements on our roadways,” Waters tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Waters points out the legislature also included $100 million in General Fund money to upgrade Missouri’s lettered blacktop routes.
The Missouri gas tax will increase by 2 ½ cents a year until July of 2025, increasing the tax from 17-cents a gallon to 29 ½ cents a gallon. Missouri had had the lowest gas tax in the country.
Some legislators, citing the spike in gas prices, have moved to repeal the gas tax hike.
State Transportation Director Patrick McKenna says that wouldn’t be a good idea, because the Missouri Department of Transportation relies on that money to fund capital projects.
“You know, when you’re doing big things like the Buck O’Neil Bridge that takes years of planning in advance and to put the financial plan in place you have to count on the money being there in the future years,” McKenna tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “If that money gets cut, we would rip apart our entire capital plan that Missourians have been waiting for for three decades.”
McKenna says the $460 million the increase generates each year funds capital projects throughout the state. McKenna says the increase in the gas tax is helping MoDOT catch up on long-delayed projects.
“There’s almost an endless amount of work for us to tackle and we’re just very pleased that we’re at a point where our projections of the condition in 10 years, based on this investment level, they all get better,” according to McKenna. “That’s what we haven’t been unable to say for probably 30 years.”
McKenna says repealing the gas tax increase would be disastrous to MoDOT’s attempts to tackle major transportation projects.
There is a provision in the 2021 bill that allows motorists to apply for a rebate from paying the increase. Click here for more information on the rebate.