Missourians will decide a week from tomorrow if they’ll pay more sales taxes to keep money flowing into state roads and bridges.
Missourians for Better Transportation Solutions can’t hope to match supporters of the transportation sales tax plan dollar-for-dollar. But they plan to heavily use social media, limited funding, and arguments that there are better alternatives.
The organization’s Treasurer, Tom Shrout, says the group is not entirely against a sales tax. But it thinks backers of the plan are taking their plan the wrong way. He says it would support a “very, very small” sales tax to fund AMTRAK Service or older adults transportation programs. But he says the user of the highway system should pay most of the costs of upkeep of roads and bridges.
Otherwise, he says, an increase in the fuel tax should be the way to go. Shrout says the legislature has the authority to increase that tax without voter approval. Otherwise, he says, truckers crossing the state won’t bear any of the costs of the roads their big trucks damage while the sales tax increase will hit low-income Missourians disproportionally hard.
We’ll hear from supporters tomorrow
(AUDIO) Shrout interview 10:58
