A change being considered for the Missouri Department of Transportation could have lasting effects in Jefferson City, as city officials try to stop the loss of a heavily used grant program.
The state Highways and Transportation Commission is considering several changes in the draft version of the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, which was presented to the commission earlier this month and will be voted on at the July 7 commission meeting.
According to the draft STIP, it "includes the proposed discontinuation of three local programs, which will no longer be managed through the sub allocation process. In 1992, (the commission) authorized continuation of these three programs even though they were no longer required by active transportation bills." The draft goes on to state that, if approved, the last allocations would be made in the current 2016 fiscal year and cities would have until Sept. 30, 2019, to spend any existing balances of grant funds.
The one program used most often by Jefferson City is the Small Urban Surface Transportation Program, or STP-SU, which distributes federal dollars through MoDOT to cities with populations between 5,000 and 200,000.
Jefferson City received roughly $188,000 this year and has about $973,000 in STP-SU funds to spend. (The majority of those funds will be used on the Stadium Boulevard and Jefferson Street project, where a dual-lane roundabout with a right-hand slip lane coming off the U.S. 54 exit ramp through Stadium to Christy Drive will be put in.)
Tight finances
Missouri has the seventh largest state-owned road-and-bridge system in the nation, and MoDOT officials have long said the department needs more money.
MoDOT gets most of its funding from fuel taxes - 17 cents for each gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel sold in the state. That tax rate has not been increased since 1996. A bill to raise Missouri's fuel tax by nearly 6 cents per gallon failed to make it through the Legislature this year.
Kenny Voss, the state transportation department's local programs administrator, has said the department, like many others, has limited resources to maintain the statewide transportation system and can no longer afford to share the $3.5 million in federal funds per year with Missouri's cities.
"These funds would be redirected towards the highest-priority needs of the state system to maintain its current condition," Voss said. "These are tough decisions that are not popular but unfortunately must be made when resources are limited."
For municipalities like Jefferson City, the possibility of losing the STP-SU funds is concerning.
Matt Morasch, director of Public Works at Jefferson City, said the city only found out about the potential loss in the last few weeks and has only had informal conversations about the proposal so far.
"We've briefly talked about it but it just kind of happened," Morasch said.
Morasch said the city has typically tried to use STP-SU funds on projects that have a regional impact, with the goal to improve the commute to and from the area. The grant funds are administered through the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which includes Jefferson City, St. Martins, Holts Summit, Lake Mykee, Wardsville, Taos and areas of unincorporated Cole County.
"These are things that affect lots of people, not just Jeff City people," Morasch said of the projects completed with STP-SU funds. "Regional thinking is kind of the goal for the money."
Impact on Jefferson City
Sonny Sanders, the city's senior transportation planner, said STP-SU funds are some of the most flexible, making them able to be used on a variety of transportation projects, from transit needs to urban planning to actual construction projects.
The STP-SU funds are typically offered as an 80/20 split, meaning the grant funds cover 80 percent of a project's cost. The remaining 20 percent, Morasch said, typically comes from the city's half-cent capital improvements sales tax, though he also noted that the city has often chosen to use the money on projects where city funds exceed the 20 percent local match.
"The city has went for larger projects where we've well exceeded the match," Morasch said. "In my mind, the government got their money's worth because the locals put in more than the required 20 percent in most cases."
Because the grant funds are typically matched out of the city's capital improvement sales tax fund, Morasch said the impact of losing those grant funds would mean the sales tax money could not go as far as it usually does. And that's if the sales tax itself is renewed.
"It just buys more for our half-cent sales tax," Morasch said. "That's the main way it would affect us. Obviously, that's got to be replaced or what we do goes down."
The city's half-cent sales tax will be on the August ballot for a five-year renewal. The city has yet to announce a sales tax campaign committee or officially kick off the campaign.
Sanders said, though he understands MoDOT's financial situation, he would prefer to see the existing program kept, but reworked. He said a lot of issues with the program can come up with smaller communities that struggle to get through the local public agency program and wind up saving much of the grant funding over time for a large enough project.
In Jefferson City, Sanders said, there's no problem spending the money received, so the program could be made more effective through a different evaluation system.
Morasch agreed that Jefferson City has no problem spending the allocated money. If the program is discontinued, MoDOT would give communities until Sept. 30, 2019, to spend remaining funds, something Morasch said the city would have no problem doing.
"We would get that spent up; it's just the future allotments we're concerned about," Morasch said. "This was always something we counted on. We knew it was there, so we planned for it. Any money helps."
Mayor Carrie Tergin said she is in conversations with MoDOT officials about the issue and hopes to keep the STP-SU program around. She said she hopes to reach out to leaders in other communities that would be affected by the change.
MoDOT is accepting public comments on the proposal through its website until June 10. The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission is expected to vote on the plan at its July 7 meeting in St. Louis.
Bob Watson contributed to this report.