New research from the Tax Foundation corroborates what Show-Me Institute analysts have been writing for years—our transportation funding desperately needs an update.
The Tax Foundation study focuses on funding for America’s highways, and how road usage has been growing while the revenue to maintain them has been shrinking. This is true nationwide and for Missouri.
The bulk of Missouri’s highway funding (and that of many other states) comes from the federal Highway Trust Fund—which is funded by a federal fuel tax that has not changed since 1993. The tax is levied on vehicles that are increasingly fuel efficient. State fuel taxes supplement the federal funding; each state approaches its fuel tax differently. Some index the tax to inflation, some periodically raise it, and still others keep it constant, as Missouri has since 1996, with inflation eating away at its purchasing power.
This funding formula disparity will only get worse as fuel economy improves and no change is made to fuel taxes. In fact, the Highway Trust Fund, which sends money to states for road maintenance, is on the verge of insolvency by the end of next year unless the current funding formula is changed.
The study’s author promotes a charge on highway vehicle miles traveled as a potential solution. This charge would vary based on how much the vehicle weighs to account for the damage it does to the road. As the study notes, this highway formula “gets closer to capturing the externalities and approximating the road maintenance cost of each vehicle.”
In other words, toll roads.
The highway funding situation in Missouri will need to be addressed soon. Travel on Missouri’s interstates has increased 17 percent since 2008, and travel on other Missouri freeways and expressways has increased 20 percent since 2010 (the most recent year for which data for the latter category is available). Conversely, since 2008, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT) overall revenue has decreased by 15 percent, with state fuel tax revenue—the largest state-contributed source of funding—falling 0.5 percent.
Making MoDOT do more with less led to an average of $745 million in unfunded road and bridge priorities between 2014 and 2018. And some of the most traveled roads in Missouri—Interstates 44, 55, and 70—will need to be reconstructed soon.
With these pressing problems, shouldn’t Missouri lawmakers heed the advice of the Tax Foundation report and consider tolling?
