Drop in gas sales is gutting tax revenue
WASHINGTON — If Missouri transportation officials are hoping Congress will ease their cash-flow crisis, they can forget it.
Lawmakers in Washington might only make things worse — either with continued uncertainty about funding levels, or maybe even reductions in federal aid.
State Rep. Charlie Denison, R-Springfield, said the inaction in Washington has already compounded the state’s transportation troubles.
“Three months of (federal) financing doesn’t do a whole lot for us,” he said, after Congress passed its 10th short-term transportation funding bill last week, punting yet again on longer-term legislation that would revamp the nation’s highway, transit and safety programs.
“We need to be looking a lot further out than that,” said Denison, chairman of the House Transportation Committee in Jefferson City. “We need to know what we can expect with the money we’re sending to Washington, how much are we going to get back.”
The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission approved a five-year construction plan this summer that slashed projected spending in half, from about $1.2 billion to $600 million, because of funding shortages. “We have fallen off a cliff,” Kevin Keith, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, said at the time.
In 2011, federal revenue made up about 57 percent of the state’s transportation budget. Jay Wunderlich, the director of government affairs for MoDOT, said policymakers are assuming level funding from Washington, despite the current pressure in Congress to significantly reduce federal spending.
Wunderlich said the stalemate in Washington hasn’t worsened the cash crunch in Jefferson City yet, but Congress’s failure to give states a long-term federal plan is dampening the state’s ability to plan and start new infrastructure projects.
“We don’t know if and when there will be new revenues,” he said. “We’re just going into a maintenance mode, taking care of what we have.”
The combination of a burgeoning crisis both in Jefferson City and in Washington over how to pay for much-needed new infrastructure projects also has Missouri business leaders on edge. They fear it could hamper economic growth in southwest Missouri in particular.
Read more here: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120429/NEWS01/304290026/transportation-road-construction-funds-federal-gas-sales-tax-revenue