By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

A state senator says Missouri took a step in the right direction this legislative session to improve its roads and bridges and increase economic development opportunities.

Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville says the $351 million project, a top priority of Gov. Mike Parson, will help Missouri take advantage of its prime location.

“We’re in the center of the country, meaning that we should be a hub for manufacturing and shipping just because we have a strategic advantage of where we are put on the map, but we rank near the bottom of states in terms of funding for infrastructure,” Luetkemeyer tells St. Joseph Post.

The legislature approved 7-year bonds totaling $350 million to upgrade 250 of the state’s worst bridges. Lawmakers appropriated another $100 million in General Revenue with $50 million going to roads and bridges and the remaining $50 million providing matching funds to local governments for road repairs.

Luetkemeyer says the General Assembly took a big step toward helping public education in Missouri with passage of a $30 billion state budget. Legislators fully funded the Foundation Formula, the formula Missouri uses to pay for public schools.

Lawmakers also approved providing each four-year college and university $1 million in additional funds for their core budgets. Luetkemeyer says it is important Missouri begin to play catch-up with higher education funding.

“We don’t want to get ourselves in a situation where tuition has to increase at such a rate where there is no distinction between what’s charged at a private university and what is charged at a public university, because then it undermines the ability of a lot of people to be able to go out and get an education,” according to Luetkemeyer.

The legislature also approved Gov. Parson’s $10 million “fast track” proposal, which will fund scholarships for non-traditional students to get vocational training.

Luetkemeyer says workforce development is vital for Missouri’s economic growth.

“One of the things that I learned about whenever I was campaigning for this office in St. Joe in particular is that people will say, ‘Look, we have good quality jobs in our community.’ And people talk about there not being enough employment, but when you talk to employers, different small business owners, they say, no we’ve got the jobs here, we just need to make sure that we have a well-trained workforce with the types of skills that we need in order to fill the existing jobs,” Luetkemeyer says.

Luetkemeyer says previously it was assumed that high school graduates should go to college. He says, now, those graduates can get high-pay jobs through vocational training.

Luetkemeyer is disappointing the legislature failed, once again, to approve a prescription drug monitoring program. He says it is important to monitor prescriptions of pain relief to combat the growing opioid epidemic. Missouri is the only state that does not have some form of drug monitoring program.