When the dust cleared after the Missouri House of Representatives’ regular session ended on May 14, only 40 of the 1,559 bills that had been proposed were passed.
The legislation state Rep. Becky Ruth (R-Festus) proposed to phase in a gas tax increase, but with the chance to file for a rebate of the additional taxes paid, wasn’t one of the bills that passed, but another one that put forth a similar idea was approved by both the House and Senate and is now on Gov. Mike Parson’s desk awaiting a signature to become law.
“I would expect Gov. Parson to sign it, but you never know,” Ruth said.
Her proposed bill for a gas tax increase was integrated into legislation sponsored by Dave Schatz (R-Sullivan), the Senate president pro tem, and his was the version that passed.
If Parson signs the bill into law, the first increase of 2.5 cents will take effect in October with additional 2.5-cent hikes each year for the next four years, for a total of 12.5 cents.
Missouri’s gas tax of 17 cents per gallon is the second-lowest in the country (behind Alaska) and hasn’t been raised since 1996.
Ruth shepherded Schatz’s version through the House.
According to Schatz’s bill, Missouri residents may file for a rebate with the Missouri Department of Revenue to recover the additional gas taxes paid each year.
Ruth said because many residents would not file for the rebate, the new tax could generate as much as $600 million a year – money that would be used to repair the state’s road and bridge system.
“Also, 15 percent of the money will go to counties and another 15 percent to cities, so it will help everyone,” Ruth said. “This will not just help urban areas. Jefferson County has a lot of rural roads, some of which are crumbling. This money will help to fix that.”
“This is also a jobs bill,” she said. “There will be probably a $1.8 billion economic benefit to the state as a result of this. I’ve talked with the owners of Missouri contracting companies that are sending their workers out of state because those states have invested in their infrastructure.
“They don’t want to, but that’s where the work is. Those workers are being put up in hotels, buying food and gas somewhere else. They want to bring their workers home.”
Ruth said she fielded emails from “a few” people, both from her district and elsewhere, who were against the proposal.
“There are still some people not happy with this,” she said. “Face it, no one likes taxes. But a lot of people see the needs. And with the refund provision in place, people get to vote every year with their pocketbooks. If they’re not happy with the way the money is being spent, they have the option to get their money back.
“However, I can say when I talked with people personally, most of them were favorable of the idea,” she said.
Ruth said she’s also happy about another part of the bill that brings the state into federal compliance with a requirement that anyone found guilty of sex trafficking while using a commercial vehicle would lose their commercial driver’s license permanently.
“This was good for two reasons,” she said. “First, the obvious reason is we need to address the issue of sex trafficking. The second is that if we didn’t pass this, the state would lose $26 million in federal funding the first year and $52 million the second, and so on.”
Locally, in the House, Cyndi
Buchheit-Courtway (R-Festus) and Mike McGirl (R-Potosi) voted for the bill while Rob Vescovo (R-Arnold), Dan Shaul (R-Imperial), Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R-Arnold) and Shane Roden (R-Cedar Hill) voted against it. The full House vote was 104-52.
The Senate voted 21-13 to approve the bill. Locally, Elaine Freeman Gannon (R-De Soto) voted for it and Paul Wieland (R-Imperial) voted against it.