Missouri does not fairly fund cities’ and suburbs’ transportation, unlike most states. Over 10 years, the majority of highway funds are not spent on interstates or in cities, which have the majority of traffic. Compared to other states, Missouri would need to double highway funds spent in urban areas like St. Louis city and county.
The St. Louis area does not receive a fair amount of the gas taxes paid. The five-county metropolitan area pays half of the state gas taxes. But St. Louis does not receive even a quarter of these taxes back – it receives 22 percent, less than half of the taxes paid. Also, the Missouri Constitution does not permit gas taxes to fund mass transit, a uniquely urban need.
Nationally, other states average 11.8 percent of gas taxes spent on mass transit. But in Missouri zero from gas taxes goes to transit. Yet this is the only mode of transportation available to many in St. Louis’ black communities.
The next mayor of the City of St. Louis will have a major challenge – repairing bad bridges. The city is responsible for bad bridges which will take more construction on locally owned bridges than the rest of the state combined: $248 million. This is due to not repairing critical bridges for years. In fact, the city will not repair any federally funded bridges next year.
To receive the 4:1 federal funding for all of these bridges would take $50 million from the city. Since the city only received $13 million from the state highway fund last year, it would take four years to afford all of these repairs. That is, if they spent all of these funds on bridges. That would take money away from street repairs, which is unlikely.
So what is the next mayor to do? St. Louis and other Missouri cities should file civil rights lawsuits. Both MoDOT and the Missouri Constitution are responsible for this discrimination. For decades, Missouri transportation has had disparate impacts on groups that overwhelmingly live in cities and suburbs. The Justice Department and the courts could correct this.
Gwen Moore is chair of the Missouri Coalition for Better Transportation.
