Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe appeared at the Pettis County Pachyderms' weekly meeting at Best Western Friday and spoke in favor of Proposition D.

Kehoe explained to KSIS why he favors the 10-cent gas tax hike.

"Twelve years ago, I served on a Missouri Highway Commission for five years, it's pretty much why I ran for State Senate is to just try to get Missourians and the Legislature specifically to understand how large our highway system is, and what find of funding it takes to keep it in shape," Kehoe said.

"Prop D would propose a 2 1/2 cents a gallon (increase) a year for four years, so after four years, it would be 10 cents a gallon. That's about a buck, 25 ($1.25 per month) to the average family, so we thought that was a good Show-Me State incremental approach to getting where we need to be," Kehoe told KSIS.

"We think it's reasonable, but it's for Missouri citizens. We've got to do something, most people agree with that, and we want to put this option in front of them," he said.

A return on the investment from the tax increase will yield dollars for the Pettis County area, Kehoe noted."The gas tax of today, including the gas tax under Prop D, would be a 70-30 split.  So 70 percent goes to MoDOT, and 30 percent goes to counties and cities. I would encourage folks to go to safermo.com. On there, they can find a drop-down menu that will show exactly what Pettis County or Sedalia or any other of the surrounding communities will get  under that 30 percent distribution," the lieutenant governor said. "So we're trying to be very transparent."

Kehoe added that the 70 percent that stays with MoDOT goes to the 19 regional planning partners, and Pettis County and Sedalia are part of a regional planning committee, so there'll be local input on those projects as well.

"We want to make sure citizens pick the projects, not politicians and engineers." Lt. Gov. Kehoe said.

The last gas tax hike (17 cents) was implemented 22 years ago under Gov. Ashcroft, he noted.

"We've been kicking the can down the road for 22 years, and for most families (or  companies), if you haven't had an increase in 22 years, it's pretty hard to make things work. So we think we should give them the opportunity to get it right," Kehoe concluded.

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