1. Low and middle income people will pay more. They will pay a much higher percentage of their income on the sales and gasoline tax increase than upper income people. The sales tax increase will have only a small impact on businesses. They get a free ride.
2. Big trucks escape. Other than the four-cents per gallon increase on diesel fuel, big trucks-which cause most of the damage to highways-get no increase in truck license fees or other charges. No highway users-neither trucks nor automobiles-will pay a fair share because two-thirds of the revenue from this tax increase will come from the sales tax which is not based on highway use.
3. The sales tax and gasoline tax are being pushed too far. This tax increase would raise the total state and local sales tax to almost 9 percent in some communities. The total state and federal gasoline tax would be almost 40 cents per gallon.
4. There's no guarantee the promised highway projects will be built. Ten years ago gasoline taxes were raised six cents per gallon, and a four-lane road between every town of 5,000 or more was promised. The taxes were collected. The Transportation Commission dropped the promise.
5. The state would start using a general sales tax on all types of goods to pay for highway construction. Up to now, support for highways has come from user-based motor-fuel taxes, truck and automobile license fees, drivers license fees and other motor vehicle fees.
6. The Governor and Legislature can always change their mind. The user-based source of revenue for highways is in the state constitution. Changing it would require a statewide vote by the people. The sales tax for roads would be a law that can be changed anytime the Governor or Legislature want to use the money for something else.
7. If more money must be raised for roads, there are alternatives that would be fairer. An example is a constitutional amendment that would authorize toll roads. It would maintain the user-based tradition for funding roads. It would make big trucks pay a fairer share of road costs. The interstates could be converted to toll-supported roads. Existing user-based revenue could support the other highways. Local, short-distance users of the toll roads can be exempted from paying the toll as is now done in Kansas.
8. Only a token amount of the Prop B tax money goes to public transit. In St. Louis and Kansas City, mass transit is the best hope of getting cars off highways. Taxpayers in St. Louis are being taxed for both highways and mass transit. It's time the state put major money into MetroLink to make it into an areawide system that will relieve highways of cars. Missouri should incorporate the non-highway transportation needs of people throughout the state into state transportation funding.
9. Most of the tax increase will be spent on building new roads, when the state has not maintained what it already has in good condition. In urban areas, emphasis should be on mass transit and maintaining highways that already exist in good condition. Rural areas should get emphasis on upgrading and maintenance of the present grid.
10. Building highways is a bottomless pit. New interchanges simply move the traffic jams to new places. New traffic soon jams the new interchanges. Population fills new areas and empties out old. If taxpayers must pay more, they deserve a policy that breaks this dismal cycle.