Neither Jefferson City nor the state of Missouri are immune from the growing national problem of aging infrastructure.
In Tuesday's News Tribune, we reported the Jefferson City Council rejected a plan to seek voter approval in August for a stormwater utility fee.
The fee would have been charged on each parcel of developed property from Jan. 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2042. A single-family parcel would have been assessed $3.50 a month.
Some council members were - rightfully - concerned the tax proposal would have been too soon after voters in April agreed to raise property taxes to fund a new public high school and renovation of the current one.
We hope the council will revisit the issue. Stormwater problems are pervasive throughout our city, and the only funding we have to address the problem is $360,000 a year from the city's half-cent sales tax. Public Works Director Matt Morasch said the city needs $2 million.
A decade ago, a committee working to develop a master plan could not reach a consensus due to the cost of needed repairs to pipes/inlets.
On the same page of Tuesday's paper, another story detailed Missouri lawmakers' creation of a task force to study the state's transportation system needs. Among other things, the task force will work to determine the condition of the state's transportation system, including roads and bridges, and determine whether the state has enough funding to address those needs.
It doesn't.
As we said before, Missouri's highways and bridges are deteriorating quicker than we can fix them, and lawmakers seem unwilling to address the growing problem.
In April, the House shot down a proposal to let voters decide whether to increase the fuel tax by nearly 6 cents a gallon.
The agency has downsized in recent years, and it doesn't have the needed funding to maintain our existing roads/bridges. MoDOT director Patrick McKenna has said his agency is replacing the state's 209 major structures over rivers at just a fraction (one-eighth to be exact) of the needed pace.
We second Sen. Mike Kehoe's initial thought on the resolution to study the transportation system during the interim: "I thought, all we do is study this thing," he said.
But Kehoe said he realized many things have changed since the last panel studied the problem seven or eight years ago.
In the wake of the Legislature's decision not to seek increased funding for state roads/bridges, we welcome the task force. We don't think it's needed to prove that funding is lacking, but sometimes interim committees help get the ball rolling.