The Show Me Institute should really work on getting policy analyst David Stokes out of the office more often. Stokes writes today that he was “lucky enough to be able to attend yesterday’s Joint Transportation Committee meeting in Jefferson City.” Lucky???? We still love you Dave!

I was lucky enough to be able to attend yesterday’s Joint Transportation Committee meeting in Jefferson City. The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Bill Stouffer, deserves kudos for arranging a terrific and informative meeting. The Chair of the House transportation committee, Rep. Neal St. Onge, vice-chairs the joint committee, and he also deserves credit for its success.

The meeting took all day and covered a number of areas, but it was dominated by discussions of public- private partnerships and toll roads. The legislators who participated deserve credit for asking a number of good questions about the issues of tolls, PPPs, truck-only lanes, and more. In my mind, one legislator that stood out with her insightful questions of the speakers was Rep. Robin Wright-Jones.

David Horner, with the Federal Department of Transportation, was surprisingly forthright about the declines in future federal highway funding amounts and support at the federal level for states to enter into PPPs with private companies for major projects in the future.

The high point of the meeting was the panel discussion that included Jack Finn of HNTB and Robert Poole with the Reason Foundation, who was the star of the show. Read more…

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