Proposition B Special Report: Legislators

On Aug. 6, you will be asked to approve or disapprove raising taxes for our state's transportation system. Those pushing for this additional transportation tax are attempting to make you see the surface of this issue. They can make a great case that our roads and bridges are unsafe and are deteriorating and that more money is needed to fix the problem. Don't be fooled. Before going to the polls, ask yourself if an additional tax is necessary and whether it will solve our transportation problems. The answer is "No!"

First, what has the state done with the gas-tax increase it imposed in 1992? It abandoned the plan that was full of promises on how those tax dollars would be spent, but still collects 6-cents per gallon tax increase every time you go to the gas pump.

This is an accountability problem Prop-osition B does not address. It would be like you paying $100,000 to have a home built only to find that a few months into construction the builder has left with your money and only the foundation is completed. Now what would you do if the builder came back to you a few years later making excuses for the past problems, but promising to build you your house for only an additional $75,000 dollars on top of the $100,000 that you had already paid him. Would you trust him?

This may sound like a silly scenario, but it's exactly what is being done with Proposition B. More dollars are being asked for and more promises are being made without any steps being taken to correct the accountability problem. There also is the problem of diverting the current transportation tax dollars to other government agencies that have absolutely nothing to do with transportation. For example, the Department of Revenue received $60 million highway dollars last year for collecting those taxes. The problem is that the Department of Revenue is in place to conduct a service for our state and should be funded from the state's general revenue fund, not charging and taking money from other state agencies that has been collected for other purposes, such as gas-tax dollars for highway projects. If this is how state agencies are going to operate, then maybe we should check into privatizing those services to bring into play a competitive bid process in order to save money, because one department charging another department for services is nothing more than a monopoly and a great way to waste taxpayer dollars. Proposition B fails to completely address the diversion issue.

Another question is whether government has its spending priorities in order. Over the last 10 years, Missouri's budget has nearly doubled. Where has state government decided to spend that money? Over the last decade, out of the general revenue fund there has been a 72 percent increase in spending on social services and a 54 percent increase in spending on building new prisons, compared to a 24 percent increase in education funding and only a 5 percent increase in funding for transportation. I think our state's current spending priorities are upside-down.

Passing Proposition B is not the answer to our transportation problems. There should be legislative action to reform how current tax dollars are spent by bringing much-needed accountability to the transportation commission. There should be action to completely stop the current practice of diverting transportation dollars to other government agencies and there should be action to get the state's spending priorities in order by appropriating general-revenue dollars to transportation rather than raising your taxes. In short, government should be reaching out to gain your trust rather than reaching into your pockets for more money.

(Republican Brad Roark is State Rep-resentative for the 139th District.)