GOP-controlled Missouri House approves Gov. Mike Parson’s $859M plan to expand I-70
The Missouri House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a construction budget that fully funds Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s proposal for an $859 million expansion of Interstate 70 in sections near Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis. The Missouri Senate is working on a separate, competing highway expansion plan.
In the Kansas City area, the House plan would extend a 20-mile stretch of the highway from Blue Springs to Odessa in Lafayette County from two lanes each way to three. The proposal also includes 20 miles near suburban St. Louis and 13 miles near suburban Columbia — the spots with the most travelers.
“This is much needed funding for I-70,” House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, told The Star. “There are parts of I-70 from downtown to Odessa that are downright scary to drive, especially when there are semis about 5 feet from your car.”
Parson had proposed the plan in January during his State of the State address. The Missouri House had previously delayed voting on the project, moving the funding from a different budget bill to the roughly $1.7 billion construction spending plan approved Thursday.
The House-approved plan funds the project using Missouri’s general revenue, tapping into the state’s record budget surplus.
The construction budget, approved on a vote of 155-1 on Thursday, will now head to the Missouri Senate, setting up a potential funding fight between the two chambers.
Competing highway plans
The Senate is working on a separate $2.8 billion plan unveiled this week by state Sen Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican, that would widen the entire stretch of I-70 across the state.
The Senate proposal would fund half of the I-70 project through general revenue and half through bonds that would be repaid over 15 years, Hough told The Star.
If the Senate approves its version of the budget with the I-70 project, both chambers will likely work through the competing plans in committee meetings.
Tom Crawford, president and CEO of the Missouri Trucking Association, told The Star that his group has been pushing for an even bigger expansion of I-70 — to eight lanes across the state — for a generation. While the six-lane widening would allow motorists to maneuver easier, truckers will have to remain in the two far right lanes, he said.
If he had to pick, Crawford said he would support the Senate’s full expansion project over the House version.
“We’re in a better position today thanks to the House and the governor and then obviously the Senate went for the full plan,” he said. “I like the position we’re in today better than I did at the start of session.”
Missouri’s transit priorities
Parson has framed his proposal as necessary to combat high levels of congestion on the major highway that slices through the state. However, researchers have disputed the idea that highway expansions are a long-lasting solution.
The competing plans for the project come as some Republican lawmakers are opposed to spending hundreds of millions on I-70 amid concerns that Interstate 44 and other highways are being overlooked.
The Missouri Department of Transportation, led by a governor-appointed commission, also faces a backlash from Republican lawmakers who say the commission is trying to exclude the General Assembly from decisions over how to spend money in a state roads fund. The commission is seeking a decision in state court giving it control over how to spend the fund.
The construction budget passed by the House Thursday includes a combined $48 million for an environmental study and improvements to I-44. It also includes $20 million of state funding toward a $200 million park planned atop Kansas City’s I-670.
Missouri House Democrats, who had previously fought to restore Parson’s I-70 proposal to the transportation budget, on Thursday supported the funding plan. However, state Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat, said the House should have added additional funding for public transit providers, including to create a pilot program where people could ride for free.
“It’s a real shame that we didn’t give it that chance — that we didn’t say as a House that we want to put a little bit more money into public transit for a change when we’re willing to drop a billion dollars into I-70,” he said on the floor Thursday.
