State Rep. Bart Korman has filed several bills in the Missouri Legislature that he said are aimed at increasing funding for the state’s network of roads and bridges.The proposals include increasing the state motor fuel tax, allocating more state money, and creating new revenue sources for the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT).Korman has filed at least eight transportation bills so far. He said he doesn’t expect all the bills to pass, but that they’re all different ideas with the same direction.The proposals follow a report from a state task force, which recommended raising Missouri’s fuel tax by 10 cents per gallon to address hundreds of millions of dollars in unfunded transportation needs. The report also recommended finding several diverse sources of long-term funding for future transportation projects.“There’s no one golden solution to fix our transportation needs and fund them all properly,” Korman said.Korman has filed three different bills that would raise the fuel tax by 10 to 17 cents over several years. One of those bills would set the tax on natural gas to be equal to that of gasoline beginning in 2023, and establish the same tax on “all fuel and energy used to propel vehicles” beginning in 2025. That would include electric vehicles.Other bills would relieve pressure on state road funding by providing more money from Missouri’s general revenue. Korman has proposed creating an emergency bridge repair and replacement fund of $100,000 per year. The money would go to MoDOT to accelerate replacement or repair of bridges in critical condition.Korman also has proposed using general revenue to fund certain costs for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which currently draws its funding from the same state fund as MoDOT.Less conventional is a bill that would allow the state Highway and Transportation Commission, which runs MoDOT, to sell or lease the naming rights for unnamed highways and bridges. Other new funding sources proposed by Korman would include changes to driver’s license or license plate fees, and redirecting up to 10 percent of current state sales and use taxes to the state road fund.Many of the bills are similar to previous proposals, and also used some input from Warren County residents and transportation advocates, Korman said. All of the proposals intend to prevent the use of tolling to fund road projects, which was a contentious issue in 2017.Korman said he is hopeful that at least one of the bills will get to the governor’s desk or a vote of the people for approval, but that any funding plan will be fighting the odds to make it through both houses of the Legislature this year.Korman’s legislative district includes Montgomery County, western and southern Warren County, and part of St. Charles County.

Bart Korman