MoDOT director isn’t the problem. Missouri has money for roads and state worker raises

Missouri’s state employees deserve raises.

That plain fact is indisputable. Missouri routinely ranks near the bottom of all states for what they pay its workers. State lawmakers, as stingy as they are short-sighted, have kept salaries and benefits far too low for far too long.

The average Missouri worker salary in 2020 was $28,871 according to OpenPayrolls, a website that tracks wages and salaries. That’s barely above the poverty level for a family of four. Low pay leads to high turnover, expensive training costs, poor morale and substandard performance.

So it’s galling that conservative state senators have thrown a wrench into efforts to improve state worker pay by calling for the removal of Patrick McKenna, the head of Missouri’s Department of Transportation.

The senators are mad because McKenna wants to take money from a recently-approved gas tax increase to pay for raises for MoDOT employees. McKenna wants to spend roughly $60 million on raises and benefits for his workers, more than twice what Gov. Mike Parson has recommended.

MoDOT says it has the authority to do so without legislative approval.

Conservatives say the money should not be diverted from concrete-and-steel spending for roads and bridges. They’ve called on Parson to fire McKenna for the grievous sin of seeking better pay for the people who keep roads and bridges clear and safe.

It’s a mistake. McKenna should keep his job, in part because he’s kept the state’s road system spliced together with spit and wire while lawmakers (and, to be fair, voters) underfunded the department.

We do believe gas tax money should go for actual infrastructure, as promised. But that spending should not preclude needed salary increases for MoDOT employees, who are grotesquely underpaid.

The Missouri legislature can and should approve McKenna’s $60 million pay increase for MoDOT workers out of the general fund. Then they should revisit the budget to find money for raising the pay of other state workers a similar amount.

The state’s general fund is gushing with cash. The state expects a $3 billion general fund surplus this year, far more than enough to increase the dismal pay for health workers, public safety employees and others.

Missouri will also receive nearly $8 billion from the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal to upgrade highways, bridges, broadband coverage, water systems and more over the next five years.

In fact, there’s clearly enough money for the state to provide cash to local school districts in order to dramatically increase teacher pay. Missouri now ranks dead last in what it pays its teachers, a fact that should embarrass everyone who lives in the state.

Some have urged lawmakers to spend Missouri’s surplus in the usual places: tax cuts for big business, for example, or subsidies for private schools. That would be a mistake.

Instead, it is clearly time for the legislature to invest in its workforce. That means better working conditions, more modern equipment, and substantial increases in what that workforce is paid.