Not the Worst Idea, just not the Right One…

Sen. Bill Stouffer (R – Northwest Missouri) his introduced a bill to increase the state sales tax by a penny to fund expansions of Interstates 70 and 44.  The act will sunset after 10 years, and while I am sure Sen. Stouffer genuinely wants it to sunset, he will be term-limited by then and can easily foresee an attempt to keep the tax going after ten years, something along the line of, "Its not a tax increase, it is just continuing a current tax, the children are the future, etc" 

This is not a terrible idea.  Our highways are indeed in poor shape, just ask the Governor of Kansas. She’ll tell you.  Expanding 70 and 44 and limiting trucks to certain lanes would no doubt improve transportation in Missouri, but there is an alternative to spending hundreds of millions of public dollars to expand these roads.  We can amend the Missouri Constitution to allow toll roads in our state and let the market and private business address the needs instead of taxpayers.  We would then have the choice between the free (sort of) current highways or the new toll roads.  More choice and better roads without taxpayer investment.  Seems like a good idea to me.