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legislators support tolls for bridge

JEFFERSON CITY - To help the only private toll bridge in the state collect money, the House Transportation Committee has approved a bill to authorize bridge operators to report toll dodgers to authorities.

The Lake of the Ozarks Community Bridge is currently being constructed to link the eastern Osage Beach area with the western Shawnee Bend area. The bridge will cost $24-25 million in bonds to build. Owners say they'll use a toll fee to pay off the bonds.

But there's a legal catch. State law does not provide private owners with power to enforce tolls on private roads or bridges -- it's just not something that had come up before.

"The original authority to collect tolls on bridges was done a few years ago," said bill sponsor, Sen. John Russell, D-Lebanon. "This just has stronger language to allow them to initiate a stop order for those who fail to pay tolls."

Currently, the Lake of the Ozarks has 1,150 miles of shoreline and only four bridges.

"There was definitely a need for more crossings," said Joe Jaeger, a member of the Lake of the Ozarks Community Bridge Corp., the non-profit group responsible for the bridge. "Otherwise, people sure have to drive a long way to get anywhere."

Construction on the bridge is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Jaeger said.

While lawmakers appear willing to help private interests collect tolls, tolls by the state Transportation Department is another matter.

The sponsor of legislation to let the state Highway charge tolls on roads and bridges concedes his effort is dead for this year.

"I had to eliminate toll roads to get it out of committee," said Sen. Danny Staples, D-Eminence. "Now it's 20 down on the calendar. I think it's dead."

Staples, who chairs the Transportation Committee, said he proposed toll roads as a way to compensate for the money the gas tax could not raise for state highways. The gas tax, which saw its last 2 cent increase in 1996, came $2 billion short of its predicted amount.

Now Staples is looking to Washington where Pres. Clinton has proposed a bill that would allow state legislators to approve the use of tolls on Interstate Highways.

"As frightening as it sounds, Pres. Clinton's bill is the only hope," he said.