Road Money Drying Up, Whatsoever Shall We Do?

State and Local Government | May 19, 2008

By David Stokes | Read Time 1 minute

MoDOT is predicting that road projects in Missouri, except for the New I-64/40, will be delayed because (according to the Post-Dispatch, via Combest):

Ed Hassinger, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s district engineer for St. Louis, said a triple whammy of higher bond payments, a looming deficit in the federal highway Trust Fund and dropping state fuel tax revenue would reduce the number of dollars available to build roads and bridges.

I sure wish a Missouri-based, free-market think tank had written a study about ways to fund and operate needed road, bridge, and transit projects using innovative solutions (public-private partnerships) and user-based fees (tolls) to fund transportation in Missouri. That might come in handy right now. …

About the Author

David Stokes

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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