As you all know by now, the
stark reality of our funding shortfall is here. For years we have been
telling Missourians that construction and maintenance costs were going up while
MoDOT’s revenue was going down.
State and federal dollars are
coming in below our needs, this is no surprise, we have been talking about this for years.
We have done a lot to prepare
for this. The Bolder Five-Year Direction helped brace us for this
moment. Now the commission has taken additional measures to help meet the
limits of our financing. One of which begins with our STIP program.
We will not be adding any new projects to the STIP. The STIP will remain
the same, allowing us to manage our funds looking forward.
Second, the cost share
program will be suspended. This program allowed counties and
municipalities to contribute funds for transportation projects. There is
no additional construction funding outside of what is already programmed in the
STIP. There is no reason to keep this option on the table at this point
in time.
We have been talking about
this funding cliff for a few years. We are as ready as possible.
