The name may sound impressive but we are in a wait and see mode. The Missouri General Assembly has created the 21st Century Missouri Transportation System Task Force.Its mission is to determine the need and offer a solution with broad-base support for improving the highway and bridge system.Patrick McKenna, director of the Department of Transportation, already has presented an overview of the need. It boils down to not enough revenue to maintain and add to our state road and bridge system.McKenna told the task force that about $55 billion of taxpayer money has gone into developing the “really extraordinary system that we benefit from today” — 34,000 miles of road and 10,400 bridges that the state owns. Missouri has the seventh largest system in the nation and it is funded at 47th in the country in terms of revenue per mile.McKenna told lawmakers what they already know about the state’s bridges. Many are in need of repair or replacement — 1,300 have weight restrictions, and 866 more are considered to be in poor condition. Of the bridges, 207 are tagged major because they are more than 1,000 feet in length, and the department knows it must repair or replace 62 of them. Right now, the highway department has the revenue to do about 1.2 a year.We wish the task force success, but what we worry about is the fact that too many lawmakers are more concerned about themselves than doing what should be done about our roads and bridges. They don’t want their name attached to any kind of a tax increase because they are afraid voters will go sour on them.