For the first time in several years, transportation officials said they are optimistic the General Assembly could provide a financial solution for funding future transportation needs in Missouri.
At the annual Missouri Chamber of Commerce Conference on Transportation on Thursday, Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission Chair Stephen Miller touted his hope that a Senate bill under consideration could be a major step to help with preserving the current road system.
The bill, which is now ready for floor debate, calls for 1½- and 3½-cent increases in gas and diesel taxes.
"This would be a stable source and could raise $56 million a year," Miller said. "To preserve the road system we have now, it would cost $162 million a year, and that's after getting our federal funding. The only fluctuating that could happen would be due to the amount of consumption."
The last time the tax was raised was in 1996. It currently stands at 17 cents, which is the lowest when compared to the eight states that border Missouri. Miller said Iowa recently raised its gas tax 10 cents, from 21 to 31 cents.
"We currently have 5 million drivers in this state, and they would be each paying $7 a year if SB 623 makes it through," Miller said.
Miller also said under the Hancock Amendment, they would not meet the constitutional threshold which would require a public vote on this measure.
House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, said in his six years in the Legislature, he cannot remember a time when there was more of a consensus for the need to find a solution for transportation funding. The problem is there is no consensus on what the solution should be, and legislators' constituents have not told them what they feel the solution is, he said.
"We have to have a plan to address all transportation modes - roads, railroads and rivers," Richardson said. "In the House we are looking at cost-sharing programs that, while they might only help build 10-20 bridges or other similar projects, they could lead to businesses coming to areas and bringing jobs with them."
Officials with the Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, which helped to defeat three tobacco tax increases over the past 14 years, told conference attendees they support an initiative petition for a tobacco tax increase.
Representatives of the association said the measure they support, when fully implemented in 2021, would generate approximately $100 million a year in new transportation revenue.
This would equal a fuel tax increase of 2½ cents per gallon.
Their goal is to have it on the November ballot.
The association is also in favor of a 4-cents-per-gallon fuel tax increase and would like to see it phased in over several years. If passed, association officials said the increase would generate approximately $156 million a year for transportation infrastructure.