CampaignSummary.html

WARNING!
Amendment 3
the "Highway Robbery Amendment"
is coming your way November 2

Protect Missouri Families and Children

VOTE NO

Highway builders want to take money that now pays for schools, health care, mental health and other critical needs and put it permanently in a new ROAD BOND FUND that could be used only for new road construction.

Over the past four years, Missourians have had more than $1.3 billion cut from basic state services because of a shortage of funds. State dollars for public schools are $600 million less than required. 88,000 students in state universities have had to pay higher tuition and fees this year. Cuts to mental health and other essential services are hurting Missourians now.

With Amendment 3, THERE'S NO FREE LUNCH. The road builders say "No Tax Increase"---but if dollars are taken from education and health care, they will have to be replaced from somewhere else. With Missouri's tight budget, there is no somewhere else.

WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU, WILL HURT YOU. The wording on the ballot is deceptive. It says "there is no net fiscal impact" since the state won't gain or lose money. It doesn't tell you about the devastating blow that public schools, colleges, and state social services will receive if Amendment 3 is approved.

Missouri needs a NEW fair source of funding for all our transportation needs. Amendment 3 is not the answer.

MORE FACTS ABOUT AMENDMENT 3

Amendment 3 was placed on the November ballot by an initiative petition with the signatures collected by paid workers. The petition drive and the election campaign are financed by big highway construction companies and their trade associations. As of July 8, 2004 the amendment's backers reported that nearly $1 million had already been spent to promote their proposal.

The proponents' campaign is built on three deceptive slogans: "End the Diversion!---Repair Our Roads!---and No Tax Increase!"

The goal of the amendment is to take money from the state's General Revenue Fund where it is used for essential services and shift it for use only for highways.

At present, half of the state sales tax paid on motor vehicles goes to state General Revenue and the other half is "dedicated" for transportation purposes. Until 1979, all this tax money went to General Revenue, just like the sales tax on all other consumer goods. All the sales tax collected when we buy a car never "belonged" to highways, as the amendment's proponents would have people believe. (If this were true, the sales taxs paid on books and magazines should go to library construction.) Sales tax money is not being "diverted" from highways. The facts are: the road builders got half the sales tax on motor vehicles in 1979, and now they're back for the rest.

The other claim about diversion is that "road funds are being diverted to other uses." But that's just not true.

Besides the Department of Transportation (MoDOT), only the Highway Patrol,the Department of Revenue and the Office of Administration receive any "highway funds" and these are used for carrying out transportation-related responsibilities. For example, the Office of Administration uses these funds to pay employee benefits for Highway Patrol troopers, MoDOT construction workers and engineers, and Department of Revenue motor vehicle licensing staff.

Amendment 3 would take money from the state's Department of Revenue by putting a 3% cap on what the department can receive from collecting the transportation-related taxes and fees. This won't provide enough money for the department to operate its local license offices, or to do the work of enforcement of the state's DWI (drunk driving) laws. We stand to lose millions of federal highway dollars from inadequate DWI enforcement. And we'll see the closing of license offices, longer lines, or longer traveling distances to get a driver's license renewed or get a car title.

The road builders' proposal reinforces the present neglect of public transit. It gives an insignificant increase to "multi-modal" that amounts to only a little over one million dollars. Funds for multi-modal were $17.9 million in Fiscal Year 2004. In comparison, MoDOT received over one and one-half billion dollars or highways in Fiscal Year 2004. The amendment also makes certain that none of the "Amendment 3 money" could be used for multi-modal purposes. Clearly, most of this money that's diverted from General Revenue is intended for road construction.

Amendment 3 is a complicated, far-reaching change in our state constitution. It gives an appointed commission total authority on how these tax moneys are used. There is no oversight by our elected legislators, and no accountability to the public.