A major funding proposal by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission has been unveiled.
Commission chairman Rudy Farber says he hopes the proposal will address the funding issues that he calls “very real and current.” The basis of the funding proposal is on a limited one-cent general sales tax dedicated specifically to transportation needs for a ten year period.
“Our thought is to bond a portion of the sales tax in order to produce a sufficiency of funds,” he says. “Along with funds that we will use from Amendment 3 to do the $1.5 to $1.6 billion that it’s going to take to take care of I-70.”
Farber says although it’s not a final solution, it is a starting point that he hopes to bring to the legislature for long-term assistance on the issue. “While that infuses money into the system for a period of time, it does not solve the long-run problems that we have,” he says.
Farber says he plans to get at the heart of the problem, which is to find a sustainable and long-term fix for the state’s transportation problems.
AUDIO: Mary Farucci reports. (1:01)
