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House endorses transportation tax vote

missouri house floor
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KBIA News
The Missouri House floor

  The Missouri House has given first-round approval to a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a temporary one-cent sales tax to fund transportation needs.  The tax hike would require voter approval and would expire after 10 years unless renewed by voters again.  Before the vote, an amendment was offered that would have raised the state’s fuel tax from 17 to 20 cents per gallon.  It was sponsored by Democrat Jon Carpenter of Clay County.
 
 
 
“The Missouri gas tax has not increased in many years, and it hasn’t kept pace with inflation, and the amount of money we get to be able to put towards our roads has been insufficient…and that’s why we find ourselves looking at an unprecedented sales tax to put toward roads which this state has never done before,” he said.
 
 
The amendment to raise Missouri’s fuel tax, however, failed on a voice vote.  The one-cent transportation sales tax needs one more vote before moving to the Missouri Senate.  A similar measure died in the Senate last year, due to opposition from a group of Republicans who said it would take money away from other critical state needs.