Summit tackles transportation funding dilemma

About 45 people turned out Monday for a Transportation Funding Summit held in Springfield on the Missouri State University campus and presented by the Missouri Transportation and Development Council, a division of Associated Industries of Missouri.

The state’s funding issues stem from a variety of topics. Among the problems: payments must begin next summer on the bonds issued as part of the Amendment 3 process, and state gas-tax receipts are decreasing due to less driving and more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Missouri Department of Transportation District Engineer Kirk Juranas spoke about the department’s major planned projects that could be affected by the funding gap, which he said could be as much as $900 million a year.

Among the projects are improvements to interstates 70 and 44, which see 25 million miles of travel a day in Missouri, and upkeep and replacement of the state’s 206 major bridges.

State Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said the interstate improvements are key; he said Missouri, with its access to both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, could position itself as the nation’s shipping hub with the proper interstate improvements. To that end, Stouffer sponsored a bill in this year’s legislative session to create a 1-cent sales tax.

Many other ideas, however, are also up for debate. David Stokes, a policy analyst with the Show-Me Institute, touted the benefits of public-private partnerships, including privately operated toll roads, to fund new projects.

MTD lobbyist Christen Jackson presented another possibility – abolishing the state’s current 17-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax in favor of a 2-cent general sales tax to fund roadwork.

See SBJ’s Sept. 15 issue for more on the transportation summit.[[In-content Ad]]