Missouri Senate's 'Rebooting Government'' initiative includes ideas for cutting Amtrak, transit, maps, plates

The Missouri Senate's 'Rebooting Missouri' effort this week looked for ways to cut state spending.  The state needs to cut about $300-500 million in spending this year and senators are exploring any and all ideas.

Most likely, many of these ideas will be carried out--or attempted--as the state budget process moves through the Senate in the next few weeks.

Among the Rebooting Missouri ideas listed under Transportation:

•  Cut Amtrak/transit ($12 mill)
•  No more free highway maps ($1.5 mill)
•  One license plate rather than two for all Missouri vehicles ($1-$1.5 mill)
•  High occupancy vehicle toll lanes (unknown impact)

On Amtrak/transit cuts, they made this comment:

This was probably the toughest topic to discuss. It was decided in tough economic times it was time for a discussion on transit. The senators believed it was time for the Legislature to weigh the need versus costs. This would be a cut made through the budget process.

MoBikeFed's current Legislative Platform includes a plank supporting requirements for two license plates for all vehicles (some trucks currently are only required to have one license plate).  The problem with having one license plate only is it makes it quite a lot harder to identify vehicles/drivers in many situations.

The license plate initiative was introduced as HB 2269 but is now part of a transportation omnibus bill.

See the full Rebooting Missouri report here (PDF).

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17885674@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

 

What do you think about these ideas for trimming the state budget?  Needed cuts or vital state services?