Missouri to Choose Aug. 5 on Sales-Tax Hike for Roads
If approved, the constitutional amendment will generate $4.8 billion over the next 10 years, at which time the voters would have to decide to renew the transportation tax.
Ten percent of the money generated by the proposed tax would go to local governments for their roads.
Under the terms of the ballot measure, however, state transportation officials had to produce a list of projects on which the new revenue would be spent.
The list of more than 800 projects includes replacing a bridge over Interstate 29 in Kansas City and improvements to 200 miles of I-70, a heavily traveled freight route the state has been trying for years to upgrade.
The list also includes work on nearly 400 bridges and the resurfacing of 3,255 miles of road, as well as fixes to airports, railroad facilities and ports.
The Missouri Trucking Association helped get the amendment on the ballot, saying that voter antipathy to higher fuel taxes was so intense that the sales tax was the only alternative.
The measure faces strong opposition, however. Gov. Jay Nixon (D) came out against it after Missouri’s Republican-dominated Legislature this year cut income taxes for the wealthy and for corporations at the same time that lawmakers voted to put the sales tax measure on the ballot to pay for roads.
Nixon said their action represented a fundamental policy change that shifted the tax burden from the well-to-do to those, such as seniors and low-income families, who cannot afford higher sales taxes.
