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Koster rejects proposals to fund Highway Patrol through GR

ST. LOUIS – Attorney General Chris Koster criticized calls by Republican gubernatorial candidates to destabilize funding for the Missouri Highway Patrol (MHP) by removing MHP from the Missouri Department of Transportation budget on Wednesday. Koster is promising to protect the Highway Patrol’s budget by keeping the agency within the Department’s funding structure.

Catherine Hanaway and Peter Kinder have both called for moving the Highway Patrol’s funding, which currently comes from the Department of Transportation’s gas tax receipts, to the state’s general revenue (GR) fund. Without additional funding mechanisms, Koster believes any such move would require taking money from other state programs, such as K-12 education or senior services. 

Koster had previously voiced his opposition to this type of proposal, and called on his fellow candidates Wednesday to reject any changes to the way Missouri’s Highway Patrol is funded.

Koster
Koster

“The men and women of Missouri’s Highway Patrol provide an invaluable service to our state,” said Koster. “They help keep us safe, provide assistance during moments of crisis, and protect us on our highways and roads.

“Their services are too important to the security of Missourians to remove their funding from a reliable revenue stream. Ms. Hanaway and Mr. Kinder’s proposal would require our state’s legislators to choose between our security and our children’s education. Pitting such vital services against one another is the wrong path for Missouri.

“All Missourians are grateful for the professionalism of the Missouri Highway Patrol, and we know the risks the men and women of the patrol take everyday to protect us. Just today, we saw the incredible dangers they face in their diligent efforts to apprehend fugitive Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino.

“I will always stand up for the Highway Patrol and will always protect the resources they need to keep themselves and all Missourians safe.”

Hanaway responded, saying Patrol funding could be improved.

“When I am governor, the Highway Patrol will be fully funded,” Hanaway said. “Further, I will work to fully fund their salary grid. Any budget that comes to my desk to the contrary will be vetoed and sent back to the General Assembly. Unlike General Koster’s plan of bigger government through large tax increases, I am proposing sensible solutions that result in our highways being improved and our highway patrol being fully funded. General Koster’s attacks are a clear effort to hide that he failed to prosecute or call for the prosecution of the rioters responsible for assaulting law enforcement in Ferguson – including Highway Patrol officers.”

Kinder’s campaign also responded, going on the offense against Koster 

“Once again, all Democrat Chris Koster has are false promises and a bad record,” said Pam Dixon, spokesperson for the campaign. “If Attorney General Koster really cared about the Highway Patrol and keeping Missourians safe, why was he silent while rioters and looters burned Ferguson? Why did he stand with Al Sharpton who crusaded against our law enforcement? That’s because Chris Koster only takes a stand when he thinks it helps him politically. Otherwise, he hides with Governor Nixon and his liberal friends. Missourians see through his games. 

“Unlike Koster, Lt. Governor Kinder has shown unwavering commitment and support to the men and women in our Highway Patrol. Lt. Governor Kinder also knows that voters want real solutions, not rhetoric. That’s why Lt. Gov. Kinder is putting proposals on the table. Instead, Attorney General Koster subscribes to the Bernie Sanders school of liberal economics. And just like Bernie Sanders, Chris Koster wants to fund his big government plans with money out of the pockets of Missouri taxpayers.

“We’ve had eight years of the failed liberal Obama/Nixon/Koster agenda with Missourians’ paying the bill and our violent crime rates increasing. The Highway Patrol and the residents of Missouri need someone who’s willing to fight for them when the going is tough. That’s exactly what Lt. Governor Kinder has done and what he’ll continue to do.”