Leader senior staff writer
The decades-old highway-funding conundrum could be solved in
the short term if a special session of the General Assembly passes the plan
Gov. Asa Hutchinson proposed Tuesday afternoon to benefit road programs here.
The governor announced a plan to fund state highways to the
tune of about $48 million a year over the next five years without raising
taxes, but some fear, at the expense of the needy.
The state Highway and Transportation Department Director
Scott Bennett says the department needs at least $46.1 million a year to
provide matching funds to unlock about $200 million a year in federal highway
funds.
“In addition to a state investment of more than
three-quarters of a billion dollars over 10 years, this new program allows us
to access billions of dollars in federal highway money—without raising taxes,”
the governor said.
MAY AVERT CRISIS
While some aspects of the new highway revenue plan require
approval by the General Assembly, and no group is completely happy, Hutchinson,
in conjunction with the highway working group he appointed and some
legislators, may have solved the highway funding crisis that has threatened the
state and its economy without answer for at least a decade.
The governor announced several
moves to fund the highways short term.
For 2017, he would transfer $20 million from unobligated
surplus and another $20 million from the governor’s rainy day fund.
PHASED TRANSFER
He would begin the phased transfer of revenue on new and
used car sales from the state general fund to the state highway funds with $1.5
million.
Beginning the second year of the plan, $4 million of diesel
tax revenue will move from general revenue to highways, accounting for $2.7 million
a year.
He would also eliminate the state Central Services Deduction
from the temporary half-cent sales tax, adding another $5.4 million to roads.
That’s a total of $46.9 million
in new highway funds for 2017.
In subsequent years, through 2021, the plan calls for no
further transfer of unobligated surplus or from the governor’s rainy day fund,
but revenue on new and used vehicle sales would be phased in until hitting $25
million a year.
In future years, dedicating 25 percent of surplus General Improvement
Funds to the Highway Department could average $48 million a year through 2021,
with highway funds growing as high as $81 million a year.
Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher said he’d not had time to
review the governor’s just-announced plan, but said his concern that the state
road revenue split — 70 percent to the state and 15 percent each divided by the
counties and the cities—would be changed to the detriment of the cities and
counties has been satisfied.
“We have infrastructure needs like everybody else,” the
mayor said. “The highways and roads are falling apart faster than we can repair
them.”
COUNTIES SUPPORTIVE
“We are in support of the governor’s plan on highway
funding,” said Chris Vil-lines, executive director of the Association of Arkansas
Counties. “Counties will not suffer immediate detrimental adjustments to
critical funding for local roadways. However, we want to continue the
conversation about county road needs. Counties do have significant needs in
road funding, especially when it comes to county bridges.”
ADVOCATES SLIGHTLY RELIEVED
“The proposal is better than we anticipated,” said Rich
Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.
“There’s not as much impact on state revenue,” he added.
But he said important programs such as pre-kindergarten,
child welfare, juvenile justice and after-school programs could be hurt.
“We already have unmet needs in all those programs. People
are losing sight of the fact we passed big tax cuts in 2013 and 2014 that
currently throw off a $242 million general revenue stream. That’s before losing
$5.4 million a year from central services to help fund highways,” he explained.
The programs Huddleston is concerned about are funded
through central services in the state’s general revenues.
