WHY AMENDMENT 3
SHOULD BE DEFEATED
1. Amendment 3 takes funds from the state's General Revenue at a time when revenue to meet basic needs is short, and budget cuts in vital programs have been made for the past four years. The "phase-in" of the shift of the sales tax on motor vehicles from General Revenue to highway construction does not permit enough time for replacement of the lost revenue for needed services.
2. Earmarking the motor vehicle sales tax for a new state road bond fund ignores other transportation needs. It is estimated that the tiny increase to "multimodal" amounts to only about one million dollars per year. Funds for multi-modal were $17.9 million in Fiscal Year 2004. (MoDOT received over one and one-half billion dollars [$1,573,651,231] from highway funds for FY04.)
3. It seems clear that the infusion of new money is meant for new highway construction. (Bonds are used for new construction, not maintenance and repairs.) This new money can support a limited amount of debt. After an orgy of spending on new roads, we would get back to the same situation we have now---not enough money for highway maintenance.
4. Urban and suburban SPRAWL go hand in hand with new roads construction. Sprawl is accompanied by a multitude of problems----environmental, social, and fiscal, as a start.
5. There will be no accountability to citizens, and no legislative oversight in the spending of these highway funds. (No appropriation by the General Assembly is required.) An appointed commission will decide which contractors get the dollars.
6. There are sound alternatives to Amendment 3 for improving the funding for transportation needs in Missouri. These are some:
- An increase in the motor fuels tax, with a higher tax on diesel fuel. In the neighboring states of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Arkansas, diesel fuel is taxed higher than gasoline to help pay for the damage trucks do to highways.
- Increase automobile and truck registration fees.
- Change the basis of automobile and light truck license plate fees from horsepower to vehicle value like counties do for personal property tax. With this change, these fees will be based more closely on ability to pay rather than on engine size.
- Submit to the voters a constitutional amendment to authorize limited use of tolls on roads and bridges. A toll road system for our interstates could be devised that exempts local users, but requires interstate travelers to help pay for highway maintenance.
- Ask for voter approval of a modest and equitable increase in funding from a general revenue source (based on the ability to pay) to provide additional state aid for public transit, passenger rail and other modes of transportation.