After voters rejected Motor Fuels Tax (MFT) increases in 2014 and 2018, Missouri lawmakers in 2021 agreed to raise the state’s 17-cents per gallon gas levy—the nation’s second-lowest—by 2.5 cents a year until it reached 29.5-cents a gallon in 2025. The first of those five annual 2.5 cents per gallon tax hikes went into effect on Oct. 1. The increases were the first since 1996 and would generate an additional $513 million in annual revenues by 2025 for the Missouri Department of Transportation, which was reporting $825 million in unfunded transportation priorities annually before state lawmakers adopted Senate Bill 262 last year. But with fuel prices increasing dramatically—the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the United States was $4.32 per gallon on March 15, 84 cents higher than two months ago, according to an AAA survey—and likely to stay high in the coming months, two bills related to …