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Future of Mo. transportation funding looks bleak

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Missouri’s transportation funding outlook has become so bleak that the state’s Highways and Transportation Commission has stopped adding new projects to its 5-year construction budget.  That announcement came today  during a transportation conference in Jefferson City.  MoDOT Director Dave Nichols says their main mission will shift to maintenance of current roads and bridges.

“We’ve got to take care of what we have before we can invest in new, and we don’t even have enough money to invest in all the money we need to take care of what we have," Nichols said. "So what’s gonna happen is if we don’t have this investment to increase funding, then our system is gonna slowly over time deteriorate.”

Nichols says by the year 2017, Missouri is only expected to have 325 million dollars for road and bridge construction, which is 160 million dollars less than the current annual cost of maintaining the state’s roads and bridges.  Transportation officials blame diminishing revenue from fuel taxes and rising costs for materials for much of the drop in available funding.

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.
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