Governor Mike Kehoe is proposing to cut funding for transportation from $6.7 million to $1.7 million, an 85% decrease.
That's as Missouri is already one of the lowest states for per capita spending on public transportation.
The cut impacts transit providers across Missouri such as OATS Transit, a nonprofit transportation service in 87 counties mostly serving people with disabilities. Its vans and buses people to work, weekly medical appointments and community resources.
OATS Executive Director Dorthy Yeager said to receive federal funding of around $14 million, the service must have a match of local funds of $11 million. She said 10% of that, or around $1.1 million, comes from state assistance.
"If the governor's recommended budget cuts are approved, state assistance would drop to just 3% of the local match that we need to provide," Yeager said. "So a significant difference for us."
Yeager added their service is crucial to get rural Missourians to healthcare access.
"People may have to travel a long distance to a dialysis clinic and they have to go three times a week, and we provide a tremendous value for that kind of service in rural Missouri where transportation options might be limited in some places," Yeager said.
OATS partners with local governments, employers, developmental disability organizations, dialysis clinics, and local area agencies on aging.
If the proposed cuts pass, OATS may need to make up crucial state funding by requiring their partners to pay more for the services or consolidate their operations.
The transportation funding cuts could also impact the cost of living in cities.
University of Missouri-Kansas City urban planning professor Michael Frisch said public transit is an amenity that makes cities competitive.
"It's part of the spectrum of public services that people expect in competitive cities," Frisch said. "If we end up reducing public transit, we're going to be increasing costs on the folks that are least able to bear those costs."
He said without access to public transportation, the cost of living would increase as residents become more reliant on cars.
Frisch added this would especially impact low-wage workers who don't own cars. More than a third of Americans cannot reliably count on access to a vehicle.
"The idea that we have to cut from public transportation, we are choosing one mode of transportation over another," Frisch said.
He said opposed the funding cuts and that politicians aren't fully thinking about cities.
"It's only till you need it when you think about it," Frisch said.
Columbia already decreased bus routes from six to three in 2023. Mike Burden, chief executive officer of Local Motion, a Columbia nonprofit advocating accessible transportation and transit, said cities should be increasing transportation options.
"This is a really difficult proposal and it won't make our state stronger," Burden said. "It will definitely impact us negatively because we're a much better place when everybody has a variety of transportation options that can truly get to their destinations."
Copyright 2026 KBIA 91.3 FM