Missouri May Struggle to Pay for a Roads According to Highway Commissioner, Tax Hike?

A new report from the Missouri Department of Transportation ( MODOT) shows Missourians want their current transportation system keep in good condition,and kept safe.
They do not, however, want the state to spend millions on new projects.
MODOT says that’s the conclusions of anecdote dive listening tour conducted this year called ‘On the Move’.
After a meeting inKansas City Thursday Highway Commissioner Joe Carmichael said if that goal., of keeping what is in place now, could be tough to meet.
“But how do we pay for it? That is a huge question,” said Carmichael.
A massive expansion program in the last 10 years is now running out.
MODOT Director Dave Nichols says annual transportation spending in the state could fall dramatically in the next few years without new money.
“We will not even be able to do preservation to keep our highways in the condition they are today,” he said.
There is an effort to place a one cent increase in the state sales tax on the 2014 ballot. The intention is to use that money, about $8 billion a year, for the state’s transportation system, mainly roads and bridges.
Polling is suggesting the voters would not support an increase in Missouri’s fuel tax, which is already one of the lowest in the nation.
Another idea, of creating or converting Interstate 70 into a toll road, doesn’t seem likely, either.
“That died a horrible, misrable death. I don’t think it’s going to re-emerge,” Carmichael added.
Carmichael said it was up toMissourians how to figure out how to pay for transportation. He said that was not the role of MODOT or the Highway Commission.