Two transportation commission slots filled

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Bob Holden has named a former St. Louis area Senate leader and the president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce to serve on the state transportation commission.

Holden on Wednesday named former Senate President Pro Tem Bill McKenna, 55, and Springfield chamber president Jim Anderson, 52, to serve on the commission.

The nominations are subject to approval by the state Senate. Both men, Democrats, have long histories with Holden.

McKenna, a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, and Holden were in the same class of freshmen state House members in 1982. Anderson and Holden went to school together at Southwest Missouri State University about 30 years ago, and Holden was a groomsman in the wedding of Jim and Janet Anderson.

"Jim Anderson has had a long-term interest in building a quality total transportation system in Missouri," Holden said. "He has also demonstrated the ability to avoid partisanship and to focus on getting things done to improve our state."

Holden also praised McKenna's past leadership and his reputation as someone who brings people together.

"Bill McKenna is a proven leader for more than 20 years of public service," Holden said. "He is committed to improving all modes of transportation in our state and is a consensus builder."

McKenna and Anderson both told The Associated Press earlier this month that they support new revenues for transportation, which they define as including trains, planes, buses and barges -- not just roads and bridges.

Anderson served with Holden on the Total Transportation Commission appointed by former Gov. Mel Carnahan. That panel recommended a 1-cent state sales tax increase for transportation, an idea that fizzled in the Legislature.

Anderson also served as chairman of a transportation commission advisory committee, which recommended highway funding decisions be based on needs such as maintenance, corridor development, safety and economic development. Those criteria were incorporated into the commission's official highway funding plan.

McKenna, who was forced out of the Senate by term limits in January 1999, now is the interim president of Jefferson College in Hillsboro.

On the transportation commission, McKenna said, he would try to bridge the interests of those pushing for more highway dollars and others lobbying for mass transit funding.

Commission terms expired recently for chairman S. Lee Kling of St. Louis and William Gladden of Houston. Vice chairman Edward Douglas of Chillicothe is to leave the commission Dec. 1. Holden has not announced who will fill that vacancy.

The transportation commission is composed of six members who serve six-year terms. Holden's choices provide him with a chance to reshape the commission.

The current commission has been criticized by some for providing either too little or too much money to rural or urban areas. Others claim the commission has focused too much or too little on mass transit, as opposed to highways.

With such tensions as a backdrop, the Legislature failed to pass a bill this year that would have boosted transportation funding by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.