Missouri rejects new road taxes

[spuwho]

Missouri had a referendum to add to their sales tax for a multi - billion spending plan for roads and bridges yesterday.

The referendum failed 59 to 41 percent.

Per the KC Star:

JEFFERSON CITY

Voters rejected a sales tax increase Tuesday that would have provided billions of dollars for road and bridge repairs.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, the sales tax hike was defeated with 59 percent voting no and 41 percent voting yes.

"It's difficult to pass a tax increase in Missouri," said Terry Ganey, spokesman for Missourians for Better Transportation Solutions, the group opposing the measure. "It's impossible to pass an unfair tax increase in Missouri."

That means lawmakers will have to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to fix the state's transportation infrastructure, most notably a plan to rebuild Interstate 70.

"We will continue our focus on safety, maintaining our roads and bridges, and providing outstanding customer service with the resources we have," Dave Nichols, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, said in a statement.

After years of public meetings and debate, lawmakers this year approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would have increased Missouri's sales tax by three-quarters of a cent for 10 years. Over that time, the state's tax on gasoline would have been frozen and new toll roads would have been prohibited.

The tax boost would have raised an estimated $5.4 billion over its lifetime. Local governments would have gotten 10 percent of that additional revenue. The rest would have gone to the state.

More than 800 highway and transportation projects would have been funded by the boost.

Over the past five years, Missouri's construction budget for roads and bridges has fallen from about $1.3 billion annually to around $700 million this year. That drop can be blamed on the end of a bond measure and federal stimulus funds, along with more fuel-efficient vehicles cutting into revenue drawn from the gas tax.

By 2017, the state's transportation budget is expected to dip to $325 million. That wouldn't be enough, transportation officials say, even to maintain the current highway system.

Construction contractors, labor unions, engineering firms and others who stand to benefit from increased transportation spending poured more than $4 million into the campaign for the sales tax. They outspent opponents by a more than 100-to-1 ratio heading into the final weeks of the campaign.

But even with that massive fund-raising advantage, proponents knew they always faced an uphill struggle.

Missouri voters historically have rejected such tax increases. And by placing the measure on the August ballot instead of the November ballot, Gov. Jay Nixon ensured it would face a smaller, more conservative electorate more hostile to higher taxes. Nixon, a Democrat, publicly opposed the sales tax increase.

The proposal also faced criticism that spanned the political spectrum over shifting the method of funding highway repair away from user fees such as fuel and vehicle taxes and to a sales tax, which are exceptionally painful for the indigent.

Instead of a sales tax, opponents argued lawmakers instead should increase the gasoline tax, which at 17 cents is one of the lowest in the nation and hasn't been raised in 20 years.

Proponents say they've explored the idea of tolls or a gasoline tax hike to raise the needed funding, but neither is politically feasible at this time. They add that unlike the gasoline tax, which can only be spent on roads and bridges, funds from the higher sales tax could be used to fund any transportation project, from mass transit to bike paths.

According to a 2013 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, 31 percent of Missouri's roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Roughly 14.5 percent of the state's bridges are considered "structurally deficient," the report says, and an additional 13.8 percent are "functionally obsolete."

[spuwho]

NW Arkansas passed a special sales tax just to get I-49 started in the large bottleneck just north of the Walmart HQ. (Bella Vista Bypass). The taxpayers paid for 2 lanes and the bridges, a private toll operator will finish the highway after Missouri completes their end.

Only problem was, for it to finish, Missouri had to pass a tax initiative too, (nope!) Now Arkansas will finish their part, but it will end in the middle of nowhere just below the state line, just 6 miles short. Just one of the issues when you work to use sales tax for highway construction.

Bella Vista Bypass Extension Project Dead Ends After Missouri Vote Fails



BELLA VISTA (KFSM) – Plans to extend the Bella Vista Bypass have hit a dead end after voters in Missouri defeated a multibillion dollar sales tax hike Tuesday night (Aug. 5). Election results show 59 percent of voters opposed the highway tax, while 41 percent were in favor of it passing. If approved, the highway tax would've funded more than 800 highway and transportation projects across Missouri, including the extension of the Bella Vista Bypass across state lines. The 19-mile road project would've been built from Bentonville north into Pineville, Missouri, which would then become a section of Interstate 49.

Arkansas voters approved the half cent sales tax to pay for its part of the two lane $150 million Bella Vista Bypass. However, since Missouri voters have rejected the highway tax, the Bella Vista Bypass will now stop about two miles south of the Arkansas-Missouri border on County Road 34, according to John McLarty, transportation study director for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.

"It's not a road to nowhere, but it would be a road to a county road up in North Arkansas on the west side of Bella Vista," McLarty said. "But it would be much nicer to go to Pineville, MO in the Missouri portion of it."

[Charles Hunter]

Couldn't the Wal[mar]tons pay for it with petty cash?

[I-10east]

^^^Clever wordplay.

[spuwho]

Someone asked me "what's the point, who cares about Missouri". It's about the viability of use taxes on motor fuels to support highway and road construction. Something our Council Member Joost was trying to implore before he was made an example. Other states are having the same issues with the use tax. Declining revenues, restrictions on use with transit, tax adverse culture, expiring revenue bonds.

So they tried to shift the burden to a consumption tax which can be used for other forms of transportation and bombed.

The COJ council was fortunate they could renew the tax without a general referendum. Another reason why politicos prefer consumption taxes.

[urbanlibertarian]

High tech tolls are the answer.  And they have the added bonus of helping the government track people who don't have cellphones.  ;-)

[spuwho]

That sounds like an issue for someone who posts under the name "civillibertarian".