ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, Oct. 11, 2004DECISION 2004: Roads
MISSOURI DESPERATELY NEEDS to upgrade its highway and transportation system, but not so desperately that voters should be buffaloed into supporting Amendment 3 on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Amendment 3 - dubbed "the highway robbery amendment" by Missouri Citizens for Tax Justice - is a backdoor raid on the state's general revenue fund. If it passes, by 2009 some $187 million a year will be siphoned out of general revenue - where it supports schools, colleges, health care for seniors and children, mental health and other services - into a fund to pay for about $300 million a year in highway construction bonds.Amendment 3 was put on the ballot through a million-dollar petition campaign paid for and mounted by the "concrete lobby" - road builders, construction unions and other business interests that stand to gain directly from highway construction. The concrete lobby also is funding the campaign to sell Amendment 3 to voters as an "accountability" measure that would "end the diversion" of tax money meant for roads into other state services. The campaign is, at best, disingenuous.
About 80 percent of that $187 million a year would come from the sales taxes that Missourians pay when they register a new or used vehicle. The other 20 percent, about $37 million, would come from the $800 million a year raised by the 17-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax. The state currently uses the money to pay for a variety of transportation-related functions, but Amendment 3 would limit the use of gas tax money to roads only. Vehicle sales taxes would all go for roads and highways, except for the Highway Patrol's law enforcement budget and the Revenue Department's cost of collecting the tax.
The problem with the "diversion" argument is that most of the diversion actually goes the other way. Twenty-five years ago, all of the money raised by sales taxes on cars and trucks went into general revenue. But in 1979, voters approved a constitutional amendment diverting half of it to transportation functions, including the state road fund.Strictly speaking, "ending the diversion" would mean returning that half of the money to general revenue. That would be unwise, but so would taking all the money away from general revenue.
State services supported by general revenue were hammered in the post-9/11 economic downturn - a total of nearly $1.4 billion in cuts from the general revenue budget in the past four years. Now, with the economy starting to hum again, the state anticipates $147 million in revenue growth this year. Amendment 3 would, in effect, siphon much of the revenue growth into highway construction, leaving other state programs to wither at inadequate funding levels.To be sure, Missouri's roads, highways and bridges - currently ranked third-worst in the nation - need serious help. But that help shouldn't come at the expense of other vital state services.
Two years ago, voters rejected a $483 million-a-year transportation tax package by a 3-to-1 margin. They're not likely to change their minds until the roads get a lot worse and the Missouri Department of Transportation's performance gets a lot better. In the meantime, it's wrong to bamboozle the voters and punish school children, college students, the poor and the needy by swiping money out of general revenue.
Vote NO on Amendment 3.