HB 1584 -- Funding for Transportation and School Buildings

Co-Sponsors:  Kreider, Koller

This bill is a comprehensive bill relating to transportation and
school building infrastructure.

TRANSPORTATION

Among its major provisions relating to transportation
infrastructure, the bill:

(1)  Increases the state motor fuel tax from 17 to 20 cents per
gallon;

(2)  Increases the state sales and use tax on tangible personal
property, including the purchase and lease of motor vehicles,
trailers, boats, and outboard motors from 4% to 4.75%;

(3)  Removes the sunset and the cap on the sales and use tax on
aviation jet fuel;

(4)  Creates the State Highway Patrol Fund, the Department of
Revenue Fund, and the Motor Carrier and Railroad Safety Fund and
sets a cap on the amount of sales tax money that may be deposited
into the funds;

(5)  Redirects the current one-half of the proceeds from the tax
on motor vehicles, trailers, boats, and outboard motors from the
General Revenue Fund to newly created funds, the Public Transit
Fund and the Multimodal Fund.  Sixty-five percent of the
redirected revenue will go to the Public Transit Fund to be used
for planning, locating, relocating, establishing, acquiring,
constructing, administering, developing, maintaining, or
operating public transit systems in the state.  Twenty percent
will go to the Multimodal Fund to be used for non-highway
transportation projects and public transit projects.  Fifteen
percent will go to the State Road Fund;

(6)  Creates a State-Local Cooperation Fund and an Interstate
Improvement Fund into which one-third of the increase in sales
and use tax will be deposited.  (Two-thirds will go to the
General Revenue Fund.)  Of the one-third increase, one-fourth
will go to the State-Local Cooperation Fund to be used to award
grants for locally identified transportation projects and
three-fourths will go to the Interstate Improvement Fund to be
used for principal and interest payments on bonds, maintenance,
preservation, improvement, construction, and reconstruction of
the state's interstate highway system;

(7)  Requires the state to maintain up to 58.4 center-line miles
of arterial state highways in the City of St. Louis.  The
Department of Transportation and the city must mutually agree on
the roadways to be maintained;

(8)  Allows the Highways and Transportation Commission to enter
into a design-build highway pilot project within the next 10
years;

(9)  Increases registration fees for commercial motor vehicles by
33%;

(10)  Requires that funds distributed under the bill to public
conveyances or facilities of public transportation be subject to
compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990;

(11)  Prohibits transportation funds, less funds required to
cover administrative and maintenance costs, from being allocated
until a formula based on quantitative factors is established in
cooperation with the department, metropolitan planning
organizations, and regional planning commissions.  All previously
authorized highway funds will also be included in the allocation
formula; and

(12)  Creates a Motor Carrier and Railroad Safety Fund.  Moneys
in this fund are to be used to carry out the duties of the
Division of Motor Carrier and Railroad Safety.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Among its major provisions relating to school buildings, the
bill:

(1)  Extensively revises the lease purchase program that is
funded by the School Building Revolving Fund, which currently
receives its moneys from transfers of asset forfeitures pursuant
to the county school fund;

(2)  Eliminates lease purchases and creates a matching grant
program with separate qualifications for new construction versus
renovation of buildings;

(3)  Changes the name of the fund to the School Building Property
Tax Relief Fund;

(4)  Supplies funding by directing the proceeds of a newly
created one-quarter-cent sales tax into the fund;

(5)  Details the elements of the long-range capital improvement
plan necessary to qualify for a grant and also permits waiver of
the plan under certain emergency circumstances;

(6)  Revises the current eligibility criteria to delete assessed
valuation and bonded indebtedness and substitutes a requirement
that the applicant district not be financially stressed;

(7)  Revises the priority for ranking applications to address
high-growth rates, overcrowding, and need for all-day
kindergarten; educational technology and health/safety features
for new construction; and building age and emergency situations
for renovations;

(8)  Provides a sliding scale for the district's matching amount
that varies between 50% and 75% based on assessed valuation;

(9)  Provides a per-pupil amount for both new construction and
renovation that varies based on the grade level of the building
to be constructed or renovated; and

(10)  Addresses issues of liability, building title, and use of
funds.

Certain additional revenues produced by the bill will not be
considered part of total state revenue within the meaning of
Sections 17 and 18 of Article X of the Missouri Constitution.

The bill contains two referendum clauses.  The parts of the bill
which relate to transportation funding and school building
funding are subject to a vote of the people at the general
election in November 2002.  The transportation funding question
will be subject to renewal at the general election in November
2012 and every 10 years thereafter.

Missouri House of Representatives
Last Updated October 11, 2002 at 9:01 am