Missouri Senate approves bill to create long-term transportation strategy for Missouri

Thursday morning the Missouri took action to approve a bill that will deal with the funding crisis facing MoDOT.

The bill, SB 173 sponsored by Senator Bob Dixon (Springfield), adds a duty to the already-existing Joint Committee on Missouri's Promise.  The Committee consists of five representatives and five senators from the Missouri General Assembly.

The committee is already charged with developing long-term strategies and plans for Missouri's future and economic competitiveness.  SB 173 adds an important new duty:

Developing long-term strategies and plans for . . . Investing in, and maintaining, a modern infrastructure and transportation  system  and identifying  potential sources of revenue to sustain such efforts

The bill pass unanimously and has now moved to the House for consideration.

Missouri's Transportation Funding Crisis
The importance of this bill is it is the first time any branch of government in Missouri has taken direct action to create a plan to address the funding crisis facing MoDOT.

That funding crisis has been brought about because the main source of funding is the state fuel tax, which has remained at the same rate since 1996.

Since the rate is not indexed to inflation, it decreases in buying power by 2-3% every year--it's like getting a 2-3% tax cut each and every year.

That doesn't sound like much, but just to keep pace with inflation compared with 1996--that is, to avoid losing buying power compared with then--Missouri's current fuel tax should be over 23 cents per gallon rather than the current 17 cents per gallon.

To make matters worse, cars are more efficient now, meaning that overall we are buying less fuel--and paying less in fuel taxes--per mile driven, compared with 1996.

Amendment 3, passed by Missouri voters in 2004, did not raise any new revenue.  It was simply a stop-gap measure to shuffle a small amount of existing state revenue to MoDOT.  

Waiting for MoDOT by zaskem on FlickR

Amendment 3 closed the revenue gap for a short time--exactly as it was designed to do, and as supporters of the measure freely admitted when it was passed in 2004--but it has now run its course and we are back where we were in 2004.

Except that the buying power of the state fuel tax is even less now, seven years later.

That leaves several thorny issues that need to be solved--and the fact that the Missouri General Assembly has decided to address them is a positive sign.

The Opportunity for Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation in Missouri
Any realistic solution to Missouri's transportation funding crisis will have to involve funding--to return the state's transportation funding to 1996 levels or at least somewhere between their current lower levels and the 1996 level.

The good news for those of us who advocate for better bicycling and pedestrian facilities, is the discussion about new funding for Missouri's transportation system provides a golden opportunity to build modern options like transit, bicycling, and walking, right into the system from the very start.

For more information:

• Missouri Transportation Alliance - the group working to develop statewide support for solving the MoDOT funding crisis; join their email list, Facebook page, Twitter feed to learn more and follow their plans as they develop 
   
• The Joint Committee on Missouri's Promise - current membership

Photo credit: Waiting for MoDOT by zaskem on FlickR, under a Creative Commons license.