Missouri Senate budget leader: use Medicaid reform savings for roads | Missouri.net

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

The state Senate’s budget committee chairman says welfare reform adopted last year in Missouri has resulted in “pretty substantial” savings that he wants to put into a MODOT program to help pay for roads and bridges.

“There will be savings, I believe, that allow us to take those savings, put them into this fund at MODOT and really divert some of the savings from welfare spending to transportation,” said Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia).

“MODOT has a fund that for years they put money into which allows them to use roughly a 50/50 match with local municipalities. MODOT can put that money on the table and use local money to leverage what are generally smaller projects, like $1 million, $2 million and $3 million projects.”

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Missouri Senate budget leader: use Medicaid reform savings for roads | Missouri.net

MoBikeFed comment: Our position, strongly supported by our members, is that any new funding source of Missouri transportation must include a fair share for walking, bicycling, trails, and transit.

This proposal is to spend all of the money saved in medicaid cuts last year, and put it into a program that (almost entirely) is used to help build and expand roads near business developments.

If the General Assembly is going to use tax cut funds this way, then not just a fair share, but the vast majority just go to funding that creates real transportation choice for Missourians.