BOND BLASTS PLAN TO TAKE ROAD FUNDS; CLINTON ACCUSED OF 'HIGHWAY ROBBERY'

U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond Friday accused President Clinton of "highway robbery."

During a visit to Cape Girardeau, Bond blasted Clinton for trying to divert surplus revenue in the federal highway trust fund to other uses besides highway and bridge improvements.

Bond leveled his criticism while standing on the banks of the Mississippi River at the foot of the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge under construction.

"Once again we are fighting highway robbery in Washington, D.C., " Bond told reporters.

He was joined at the press conference by officials from the Missouri Department of Transportation's Southeast Missouri regional office and the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Bond said Clinton's fiscal 2000 budget abandons the funding guarantee that Congress included in the 1998 federal highway law. A provision in the law ensures that federal gas tax money is spent on highway and bridge projects.

If Clinton succeeds, gas tax money would be diverted to "a veritable smorgasbord of Al Gore's boutique environmental programs," Bond said. "That's simply unacceptable," the Republican senator said.

From 1992 to 1996, more than 5,000 people died on Missouri roads, Bond said. The state, he said, needs safer roads and bridges. "In Missouri, we have bridges that have become see-through."

He pointed to the current repair work taking place on the aging, two-lane Mississippi River bridge in the shadow of the new four-lane span being built at Cape Girardeau.

"Here in Cape Girardeau, traffic continues to be choked up across the Mississippi River bridge because repair crews continue to find new cracks in the bridge even as they are trying to fix the old ones," said Bond.

The Senate Budget Committee unanimously rejected Clinton's budget this week. Bond serves on the Budget Committee. Bond said even Democrats on the committee voted against the Clinton budget.

But Clinton's effort to tap into the highway trust fund could surface again in budget debates in the full Senate, Bond said.

Bond said the highway trust fund has collected $1.5 billion more in revenue than had been projected. As it now stands, that money would be distributed to the states for road and bridge projects.

Missouri stands to receive some $30 million if Congress continues to hold the line on Clinton's efforts to siphon off some of the funds, Bond said.

Scott Meyer, who heads the state highway department's District 10 office in Sikeston, said some of that added revenue could go to fund road and bridge projects in Southeast Missouri.

Meyer said motorists shouldn't worry about the condition of the existing span that connects Missouri and Illinois. "The old bridge is safe," he said.