Dear Editor:
A transportation sales tax is the solution to our state's transportation needs sponsored by Sen. Mike Kehoe. I am the Democratic candidate for state Senate District 6, encompassing Cole, Osage, Gasconade, Maries, Miller, Morgan, and Moniteau counties. As an energy and environmental scientist, I worked at Missouri Department of Natural Resources for 18 years, on transportation and industrial issues, followed by the last three years as a solar energy educator and consultant. I would appreciate the opportunity to share some of the insights I have gained from working in these fields.
The straightforward, common sense solution to both state and federal funding for transportation should very simply be to increase the fuel tax, as has historically been the source of funding that built our national transportation system.
The basis for the mismanagement and underfunding of our national transportation system has been the lobbying effort to privatize our roads. The crafters of this plan envision users of their private transportation utility paying a monthly fee like we do for electricity, gas and water. The strategic process we are being guided through is designed to present the state with a false choice, between an untenable transportation sales tax, and the introduction of toll roads.
Let's look at the overall budget package passed by the Republican-controlled legislature.
It was following the Legislature's passage of their top priority income tax cut, that Sen. Kehoe sponsored a $5.4 billion sales tax increase, shifting the burden of paying for our transportation infrastructure from the wealthy to the middle and lower income wage earners. Sen. John Lamping has said that it would make more sense to simply forgo the income tax cut.
Another concern with this $5 billion price tag is that, while it would provide a massive boost to the economy, inadequate planning has gone into determining how this major taxpayer investment should be allocated, to achieve the greatest number of high-paying jobs, to benefit the broadest range of the economic sector. Our legislators can do a better job of funding transportation and revitalizing the economy.
Either a fuel tax increase, or more likely a combination of income tax and fuel tax would be the most equitable way to pay for the urgently needed upgrade of Missouri's transportation system, along with other measures such as energy infrastructure upgrades for solar, wind, geothermal, and energy efficiency, which would be huge job creators, across a far greater sector of the economy, while lowering our costs for electricity.
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Editor's note: The deadline for timely publication of comments related to Aug. 5 ballot issues has passed. The final batch of letters already received on these topics will be published through Monday. Feel free to leave online comments on our News Tribune editorials (labeled "Our Opinion") related to these and other issues.