A divided state Senate has sent a major transportation funding program to the House.  Senator Mike Kehoe’s eight-billion dollar sales tax proposal would not have passed without support from minority Democrats.  Ten of the Senate’s 24 Republicans voted ‘no,” after Republican Senator John Lamping criticized  the one-cent sales tax as taking the state “down the wrong road” of “bigger government and eight billion dollars in higher taxes.”  .

But Kehoe got support from the leader of the Senate, Tom Dempsey of St. Charles, who says, “Providing a sound, safe, dependable transportation system is a function of government…We have to address this problem. ” 

Kehoe says the sales tax would be collected for ten years before voters are asked to extend it. 

AUDIO: Debate 13:12