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In This
Issue
- McDonald’s Re-Opening
- Transportation Funding
- Electric Rate Hearing
- A Little Bit of Humor…
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McDonald’s
Re-Opening
Representative Cynthia Davis welcomes McDonald’s back to
O’Fallon. McDonald’s held a grand re-opening last week for the
restaurant located in the middle of O'Fallon near I-70. While the store
had been open there for many years, it was completely torn down and
rebuilt.
Are We
in for a Rocky Road?
When I became a state legislator in
2002, Missouri’s major roads were rated to
have the third worst pavement in the nation. Part of the problem was
created by the state using road money for non-road purposes.
Legislative remedies were proposed, called “Stop the hemorrhaging,” but
none were able to survive a legislative session. Finally, the people
put an initiative petition, Proposition B, on the ballot that would stop
the diversion of state highway money to other agencies. The
people voted for this in 2004, and it became Amendment 3 to the state
constitution. Starting in 2005, our highways began to receive badly needed
funding that rightfully belonged to our roads in the first place. As
a result, Missouri was able to bring our roads up
to being rated the ninth best in the nation. Also, in 2006,
Missouri
had the largest drop in traffic-related fatalities of any state in the
nation, down by 161 deaths compared to 2005.
While I am happy to report that
Missouri
is now under control, another storm is brewing in our national government
over diverting our motor fuel taxes to non-road related funds. As a
result, we may experience some additional hardships in getting our
hard-earned money back from the federal government.
Currently, the federal government
charges a motor fuel tax of 18.4 cents on each gallon of gasoline, and
24.4 cents on a gallon of diesel. Of that money, 15.44 cents of the
gasoline tax and 21.44 cents of the diesel tax have returned to
Missouri
for highways.
There is an expression, “If you want to get out of
the rat race, you have to let go of the cheese.” This is true
especially for our state. I would rather opt out of the current
federal tax program so that all the money generated from drivers on our
roads stays in Missouri. Some enlightened members
of Congress have offered a proposal that would do just that.
Currently we send our generated funds to Washington, let the feds add their
handling charge, and then they send a portion of that back to us all tied
up in strings and red tape. In general, money spent by lower levels
of government will be used more efficiently and intelligently than
expenditures from decisions made over 1,000 miles away. According to
the Heritage Foundation, this out-of –touch Congress (Todd Akin excepted)
is now threatening us with an effort to divert even more of our motor fuel
dollars to non-highway uses. (Click here to read the full text of the
article.)
In the 1950’s when we didn’t have an
interstate system, it was important for us to have federal involvement to
build one. Now that it is in place, we really should give states
complete control over their own money. Tax dollars extracted from
the people for roads should be used on roads. Money that comes out
of the wallets in Missouri should stay in
Missouri.
Your
thoughts are important to me, so please let me know what you think about
the use of federal gasoline tax funds. You can send me your opinion
by clicking here:
Cynthia Davis.
Public
Hearing on Electric Rates
 AmerenUE has applied to the Public
Service
Commission (PSC) to
increase its customers’ electric rates about $8.66 a month. A Public
Hearing will be held tonight, Sept. 18, at 5:30 p.m., in Room 115 of the
St. Charles Administration Building, 201 North Second Street.
The local public hearing will give consumers the opportunity to comment on
the rate increase as well as bring any other service related issues to the
attention of the PSC.
Consumers may make written comments to the Office
of the Public Counsel, Governor Office Building, 200 Madison Street, Suite 650, P.O. Box
2230, Jefferson
City, 65102; telephone comments at (866)
922-2959; or e-mail at opcservice@ded.mo.gov.
For more information, contact the Missouri Public Service
Commission at (800)
392-4211.
A Little
Bit of Humor…
 MY LIVING
WILL
Last night Rosie and I were sitting in the living room and I
said to her,
"I never want to
live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a
bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all. If that
ever happens, just pull the plug.”
So she got up, unplugged
the computer and TV then threw out my martini.
She's
mean!
This Capitol Report is a weekly
newsletter by Representative Cynthia
Davis, from the 19th
District, covering events in the Missouri Legislature and district-wide
issues.
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