Gov. Nixon scraps new transportation program in budget cuts

Gov. Nixon’s steep budget cuts Thursday may affect two planned projects in Jefferson City.

ABC 17 News reported the Governor announced $59.1 million in cuts after lawmakers passed two bills in Wednesday’s veto session that would give out millions in special tax breaks.

“I said quite clearly then and in my veto messages, that if the special interest tax breaks in senate bill 641 and senate bill 1025 were enacted, they would tear holes into this year’s budget,” Nixon said.

More than a third of the money was taken from a new MoDOT program.

The Missouri General Assembly established the $20 million program called “Missouri Moves” earlier this summer. The program was supposed to award selected communities up to 50 percent in project costs to help with different transportation projects.

Jefferson City applied for two projects with the program.

The first requested $186,5000, or 50 percent, to add sidewalks to the north side of the street along a stretch of Missouri Boulevard.

“There’s three bus stops along that segment which have bus shelters, but the sidewalks are disconnected,” Jefferson City Engineer David Bange said. “So the project, we think, has a lot of nice safety features to it in terms of getting folks to the crosswalks.”

The second project requested about $900,000 for a $3 million project to connect the city to the riverfront, a project known as “Adrian’s Island.”

The city has been trying to build a bridge to get to the land for park purposes for about 30 years, according to Bange.

But Gov. Nixon said the Missouri Moves program was not a solution to a long-term issue of funding the state’s growing transportation needs.

“Well first of all, we should pay for the roads with user fees. I said that all along,” Nixon said. “We cannot continue to ignore our long-term responsibilities to make our roads safer and better.”

Without the money from Missouri Moves, Bange said the city will not be able to complete the two projects for the time being.

“We would look for other opportunities, other grant opportunities to try to get funding for that project,” Bange said. “But for the moment it’s, it wouldn’t proceed without that money.”

The governor’s cuts also included $24 million from schools, $8 million from universities and more than $4 million from farming programs.