Tolling looking like a serious option to multi-billion-dollar problem

State Sen. Paul LeVota said he was only half kidding.

Should the state impose tolls to rebuild and expand Interstate 70, which takes travelers and truckers through Eastern Jackson County and across the state?

Sure, said LeVota, D-Independence, as long the tolling isn’t in his district. Other legislators will take the same view, he said.

“I think we need to keep our minds open,” LeVota said this week.

Gov. Jay Nixon has put tolling back on the table, and the Missouri Department of Transportation turned around a quick summation of options to rebuild the freeway, from $2 billion to $4 billion, far in excess of the agency’s construction budget. Some proposals could require voter approval, and officials say that could be a tough sell.

MoDOT’s new report is titled “Tolling Options for I-70, Independence to Wentzville,” and it lays out not only the cost challenges but the flexibility of new tolling systems.

But local legislators say tolling as deeply into the metro area as I-70 and I-470, as the report suggests, is not realistic or appropriate. Somewhere around Oak Grove is more likely.

“So that’s where some of the conversation is going right now,” said Rep. Jeanie Lauer, R-Blue Springs.

“I don’t want folks in Oak Grove to have to pay to get to 470,” she added.

Big project, big costs

Lauer and LeVota spoke Tuesday at a legislative breakfast in Independence the day before the General Assembly convened for the year. Legislators said transportation is likely to be well-discussed subject. I-70 is a big part of that. Six out of 10 Missourians live within 30 miles of the freeway.

“We need more money for the highway department,” said Rep. Ira Anders, D-Independence.

MoDOT agrees. In its report, it offers three basic options for I-70:

• Add a lane each way by filling in the median, and reconstructing existing lanes, plus minimal other improvements – $2 billion.

• Add a lane each way on the outside, with 150 feet of right of way needed – $3 billion.

• Add two lanes each way, for a total of eight, with half of those dedicated for trucks – $4 billion.

By comparison, MoDOT estimates its annual construction budget for the entire state will fall to $325 million by 2017. It also lacks the bonding authority for a project of this size. Tolls to pay for an I-70 project would probably run from $25 to $30 from here to St. Louis.

“ ... MoDOT does not have the money to tackle a project the magnitude of I-70,” the agency’s report states.

None of this is occurring all that soon. Even if tolling was approved this year, MoDOT estimates construction would start in 2018 and be done in 2022.

Worse congestion

MoDOT’s report also confirms how crowded I-70 has become. Designed for 12,000 to 18,000 vehicles a day, it now carries 98,000 in the Kansas City area. The number of daily trucks – 25,000 – alone exceeds the original design limit.

The closure of a lane, MoDOT notes, causes “immediate backups that stretch for miles, and it will get worse.” By 2030, most of I-70 statewide “will operate in a stop-and-go condition.”

Last August, voters rejected a sales tax that would have been substantially devoted to a $2 billion rebuilding of I-70. At Tuesday’s breakfast, LeVota said the voters weren’t saying the roads don’t need to be fixed but were instead reacting to the Legislature passing an income tax cut primarily for the benefit of the wealthy and then in the same year asking for a sales tax for roads – a tax that hits the poor the hardest.

“Good infrastructure, good schools, good community” are the building blocks of a good business environment, he said.

But one Independence resident, Don McNulty, gave legislators a sharply different take. He mentioned the settlement Missouri and most other states entered into with tobacco companies years ago to recover smoking-related health costs and how little of that money has gone for such things as smoking-prevention programs, as intended.

“You know,” McNulty said, “I don’t trust you at all because you’ve done me dirty too many times.”

Also, The Examiner asked about tolling I-70 on Facebook.

“Yes, absolutely need this!” posted Lori Case Stokes, echoing the sentiment of others. “Would get the trucks and the 90 mile an hours off,” added Darlene Snyder. But David Wiss said the state isn’t getting its money’s worth now and MoDOT “has been corrupt since the 1920s.”

Steven L. Segura suggested a lane for 80 mph and faster. “I would pay for that in a heart beat,” he posted.

Other options?

Legislators also noted that other options such as raising the state’s gas tax – the lowest in the country – haven’t gone anywhere in the General Assembly. One argument is that as vehicles become more efficient over time, that’s a dwindling source of revenue.

“That’s the rationale behind not doing it,” LeVota said.

Anders added that the poor are more likely to drive older, less efficient cars so the gas tax hits them proportionally harder than the middle class and well-to-do.

“The fuel tax is basically a sales tax,” he said.

Modern system

MoDOT stresses that tolling I-70 would not look like the Kansas Turnpike, which it calls “largely antiquated.”

“MoDOT would use a technologically advanced electronic toll collection system that doesn’t require even slowing down or a booth on every ramp,” its report says, adding that toll booths at the 50 interchanges between Kansas City and St. Louis would not be practical.

MoDOT argues that the prime reason to rebuild and widen I-70 is safety but also says it would add jobs. The $2 billion option, it says, would add 6,070 jobs at $34,119 a year.

One other piece of the puzzle could add some urgency to the discussion: Tolling requires federal approval, and that’s not granted automatically. Just three states currently have provisional approval to look at tolls for existing freeways. Missouri has had that since 2005 and not acted on it. Other states regularly ask for Missouri’s slot.

“This approval will expire if not acted upon,” MoDOT’s report says.