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From the Roundtable: Raise the state gas tax (A columnist can dream, can’t he?)

Al Germond is the host of the "Sunday Morning Roundtable" every Sunday at 8:15 a.m. on KFRU. Al@columbiabusinesstimes.

Missouri needs to increase its tax on gasoline and diesel fuel, which has been stuck at 17.55 cents per gallon for 12 years and is one of the lowest in the country.

Although it’s something that should happen, it won’t. In fact, a check on pending bills in the General Assembly shows only two bills addressing the subject, and they would lower the gas tax on Memorial and Labor Day weekends and for school buses.

Drivers willingly accept almost daily fluctuations in prices at the pumps. One day it’s $2.39, then $2.49, $2.59 and back down to $2.39. They are, however, unwilling to see it go up so the state can pay for projects that benefit everyone.

To whisper an increase of as little as a penny or two unleashes a cathedral chorus of: “No! You can’t do that to us!” Or on Jefferson City’s Capitol Hill: ”Well, the voters will never go for that!”

But if there was ever a time to hike the tax rate on motor fuels, it is right now, when federal revenues to states are declining and highways and bridges are deteriorating. The Missouri Department of Transportation says it generates $50,000 per mile of state roads and highways, by far the lowest among the contiguous states.

Imagine what the state of Missouri could do with the receipts from an increase from 17.55 to 22.25 cents per gallon of motor fuel dispensed. That’s a nickel increase to fund a vast array of construction projects, bridge replacements and other deferred enterprises, plus a little left over for mass transit and high-speed rail.

Maybe some of that increase could go toward getting Columbia totally engaged in building and maintaining every mile of pavement within its city limits, with the exception of Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 63.

Historically, MoDOT and its predecessors have been the custodians of various federal and state highways that traverse the city. This includes Interstate 70, the improved version of U.S. Highway 40 now called the Business Loop, U.S. 63 and various farm-to-market paths later paved and curiously identified by letters such as “O,” “UU” and so forth. (A designation Missouri shares with Wisconsin, incidentally.)

It would seem simple enough if the state had the money to have MoDOT pay Columbia an annual agreed-upon sum for the city’s public works department to maintain streets such as 763 (Providence Road) and “TT” (West Broadway), for example — allowing the re-deployment of state workers and resources elsewhere.

Maybe something would be left over for rail transportation and the absolutely never-to-be-realized dream of an electrified high-speed, multi-track, “air-line” rail connection built on an entirely new right-of-way, Missouri’s “train à grande vitesse.”

Instead we hear talk about federal funds to build ”passing sidings” that end up being too short for ever-lengthening freight trains on an obsolescent single-track trans-state rail line. We see funds spent on the Osage River Bridge for a project that private capital had already taken command of and on other piecemeal improvements that will somehow enhance travelers to take the train. What a waste!

So raise the gas tax? Voters would never go for it. Never!