From the Kansas City Star:
By BRAD COOPER
The Kansas City Star
Missouri is fast running out of money for new roads.
Revenues are dwindling. Money from a voter-approved plan to redirect some sales taxes to roads is almost gone. And a federal highway plan isn’t coming soon.
Transportation funding in Missouri is expected to plummet $1 billion by 2014, leaving little money to care for our roads, let alone plan new projects such as rebuilding Interstate 70 through Kansas City.
Where do we go now?
A group of business, labor and community leaders from across Missouri — called the Missouri Transportation Alliance — is developing ideas for how we might keep the state’s roads free of potholes or relieve congested highways.
Action is important if the state doesn’t want to slide back to the days when it had some of the nation’s worst roads, said Bill McKenna, chairman of the alliance and former chairman of the state highway commission.
“Now is the time to be working on this,” McKenna said. “You’ve got to stay ahead of the curve or you’re always going to be playing catch-up.”
The group has looked at various ideas for funding transportation — gas taxes, sales taxes, licensing fees — but hasn’t settled on any ideas that could eventually be taken to voters to approve, McKenna said.
The group could launch an initiative petition drive to put the issue on the ballot. Or it could ask the General Assembly to put a plan on the ballot. No decision has been made about which avenue to pursue.
In 2004, voters approved a plan — known as Amendment 3 — that moved half the motor vehicle sales taxes from the general fund to roads. It is credited with helping Missouri improve its highways.