As the Missouri Legislature wraps the budget bills today, transit is seeing a win with an increase in funding over prior year. HB 4 which was approved includes an additional $3 million for a total of $10 million in General Revenue plus $1.7 million from the State Transportation Fund for transit, a 34 percent increase over prior year and more than 580 percent increase since 2021. This would be the second year in a row public transit saw an increase in investment. In 2022, Missouri invested $8.7 million in transit, an increase of $7 million over 2021. This investment was the first substantive investment in transit in more than 2 decades.
This funding will help provide the non-federal or local match required to enable transit providers to draw down some of the $91 billion in federal funds earmarked for transit as part of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Federal funding support requires a 50:50 match for transit operations and an 80:20 match for capital programming. Missouri transit providers have been working diligently to identify local funding sources through sales tax, private contracts and more, but the most significant missing link up to this point had been the lack of state funding.
In addition, Missouri also approved a $2.8 billion plan to widen Interstate 70 to at least three lanes across the state.
The budget was required to be approved by today. The legislative session wraps on Friday, May 12.
The budget now goes to the Governor to sign it into law. It is imperative that transit supporters reach out to the Governor for his support of transit.