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By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press – Jan 2, 2012
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Stuck in a financial pothole, Missouri's highway department has been selling equipment and eliminating employees to scrounge up enough money to repair its roads. Unless it also changes state law, it could lose tens of millions of federal highway dollars as a penalty for not adopting new safety requirements for commercial truck drivers.
Though Missouri's financial predicament may be extreme, it is far from unique. Approximately one-third of states have indicated they may not meet a Jan. 30 deadline for their drivers' license offices to require interstate truck drivers to provide proof from a medical professional that they are healthy enough to drive, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
States that fail to comply with the federal mandate could lose 5 percent of their highway funds — about $30 million in Missouri's case. If they remain out of compliance for a second year, that penalty doubles. But noncompliant states could receive a grace period; as long as they submit a plan to obey the mandate, federal officials have indicated they may not start deducting money until 2014.
The federal agency declined to provide a list of the states in jeopardy of missing the deadline. But Missouri's plight was confirmed by state officials and documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request. Officials in several other states, including Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma, also confirmed to the AP that they will not be able to fully implement the federal requirement by the deadline... FULL ARTICLE
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Mon, January 2, 2012
by John Cox