Capital improvement issues could be heading to voters

It appears state lawmakers are committed to funding capital improvement projects, assuming they can get the support of Missouri voters.

Members from both the House and Senate in Jefferson City are sponsoring resolutions that call on voters to weigh in on a sales tax to advance transportation initiatives and a bond measure designed to tackle state building and college campus priorities.

One measure sponsored by Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, is designed to establish the Fifth State Building Fund. If approved, House Joint Resolution 14 would authorize the General Assembly to issue up to $950 million in bonds to fund the construction of state buildings and infrastructure primarily focused around higher learning institutions.

A second proposal sponsored by state Sens. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, and Ryan McKenna, D-Crystal City, calls for a 10-year, 1-cent sales tax to fund road and bridge construction and maintenance across the state. The measure, Senate Joint Resolution 16, would generate an estimated $7.9 billion for transportation projects during its lifetime.

According to both resolutions, votes on each initiative would take place at a general election in 2014 or at a special election called by the governor.

Transportation needs
The transportation tax proposal comes after Rudy Farber, a Neosho banker who is chairman of the Highways and Transportation Commission, called for the sales and use tax Jan. 24 at the Missouri Conference on Transportation in Jefferson City.

Following the Feb. 5 announcement by Kehoe and McKenna that they were sponsoring SJR 16, Farber called on leaders in the House and Senate to work together to put the 1-cent sales tax before voters.

“Safer highways, less congestion, and a stronger economy with more than a quarter-million supported jobs are to be expected should Missouri voters agree,” Farber said in a released statement. “We appreciate the legislature’s attention to the importance of investment in Missouri’s transportation system.”

The sales tax under SJR 16 would set aside 10 percent of the revenues generated for city and county transportation needs. The tax would not be collected on gasoline, medicine or groceries. In addition, it would prohibit lawmakers or the highway commission – which serves as the governing body for the Missouri Department of Transportation – from establishing tolls on highways while the tax is in effect.

Joe Carmichael, partner in Springfield law firm Carmichael & Neal PC, has served as a highways and transportation commissioner since April 2009 when MoDOT was still completing more than $1 billion in projects annually.

“The issue is one that, internally, the highway commission has been discussing for some time,” Carmichael said. “This year, we have pretty much gone into maintenance-only mode and we see down the road where funds available to maintain an ever-aging system are not going to be sufficient.”

According to Missouri Department of Transportation Special Assignments Coordinator Bob Brendel, the state’s construction budget averaged $1.2 billion between fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2011. In the current fiscal year, the state’s road projects budget is $684.7 million.

Carmichael said the state’s current fuel tax of 17 cents per gallon is insufficient in funding state road projects. People are driving less and many cars are becoming more fuel efficient in recent years, he said, making funding support for transportation projects harder to come by.

Carmichael said state transportation officials would develop a list of projects the tax could support should legislators forward the sales-tax initiative to voters. Projects such as the Highway 60-65 interchange in Springfield are the types of plans Carmichael said he’d like to see more of with sales tax funding in place.  

“We’re at a point where the only major projects we are currently awarding were already funded,” Carmichael said.

The sales tax measure, he said, is also important because it would assist cash-strapped local governments across the state in fixing their roads and bridges.

“This would offer some much needed relief to city and county roads’ departments,” Carmichael said. “Those driving around rural Missouri can see there are many county roads and bridges that need some work.”

Building bonds
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry supports both the transportation tax proposal and the building bonds issue, said President Dan Mehan.

A key to the bond issue, he said, is that the proposal calls for the state to reissue bonds the state paid off in October.

“There are a number of state facilities that are in need of repair and renovation,” Mehan said. “The cost of borrowing money is at a historic low, and this could present a very real stimulus for the Missouri economy.”

On Jan. 4, state Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, hosted a preview of the upcoming legislative session at the Springfield chamber offices, where he said improvements to infrastructure and education were among the Republican majority’s top priorities this year. Specifically, he said state lawmakers should work to seize an opportunity to reissue building bonds first issued in 1983 under Gov. Christopher “Kit” Bond.

According to the resolution, no more than $250 million of the proceeds could be allocated for construction purposes other than for higher education. Also, no less than 15 percent of bond proceeds could be used for buildings, equipment and infrastructure at Missouri’s community colleges.