The Gadfly is a series of letters offering commentary on local issues and published in the Warrensburg Gazette.

Along with all the candidates on the November 3rd ballot, we get to vote on an amendment to the state constitution. This one is called Amendment 3 and it’s the only issue on the ballot; we voted on 1 & 2 back in August. This amendment, which deals with highway funding, was put on the ballot by petition.

In essence, Amendment 3 ends the practice of using some of the tax we pay on gasoline for other state uses than the Department of Transportation (MoDOT). It goes further, requiring that essentially all the state (as opposed to local & conservation sales taxes) go to MoDOT. Currently, only half of that tax goes to MoDOT, with the rest going into general funds; this change will be phased in over 4 years.

As always, the devil is in the details, and there are some interesting ones buried in the full text of the amendment, as published in the Gazette last week. They're doubling the percent of the taxes (from 1% to 2%) that go into the "state transportation fund" – I can't find in state statutes specifically what this fund is for, but I suspect that it's for other forms of transportation – busses & urban transit, trains, intermodal, etc.

One additional concern is that the amendment does not move MoDOT from under an "independent" commission appointed by the Governor to a department directly responsible to him. Both major candidates for the office have said they favor a move, so we may see an additional amendment sometime in the future. A second concern is that the primary backers of this legislation are the companies and unions involved in highway construction; they wrote the bill so it's obviously written to their benefit. A concern voiced by the few organized opponents to the amendment questions how other agencies that have siphoned off funds are going to replace them.

I suppose it's worthwhile to end the funds diversion; I just wish that the details weren't so arcane.