Issue Position: Better Roads for a Better Louisiana

Issue Position

It doesn't take an expert to know that we have a problem with traffic and congestion in Louisiana. Every day it takes longer to get to work, and more importantly, longer to get home to our families.
Something must be done.

Louisiana currently faces a $12 billion backlog of road and bridge projects. To put that in context, the state's current 20 cent per gallon gas tax generated $587.3 million in revenue this past year. That means we would need 20 years of gas tax revenue just to meet the backlog.

And that is if we put all that revenue to road projects, which we don't.

In 2013, only $27 million of the gas tax revenue was used to maintain roads. That means that only 4.6% of the money intended for fund road maintenance was actually used to improve the roads we drive on. The rest went to state police, ports, airports, and bureaucracy. This is an embarrassing mismanagement of our resources.

It gets worse: that backlog is made up of crucial maintenance and upgrades, but does nothing to address new projects, or increasing current road capacity. The Department of Transportation and Development Master Plan includes nearly $7 billion in "mega" projects that are needed to deal with existing congestion and to address the needs of future growth.

The bottom line is that we need to invest in roads and bridges if we are to keep our economy growing.

In the short-term, we must stop raiding the Transportation Trust Fund, streamline bureaucracy, and focus the money we are spending on top-priority projects.

In the long-term, we need to explore public-private partnerships, develop a stable and reliable funding mechanism, and end the use of state funds for local projects.

Taking Immediate Steps:

As part of an overall solution to the budget crisis we face, we need more transparency in state finances; one place to start is the Transportation Trust Fund. The money raised from sources intended for roads and bridges, like the gas tax and vehicle sales tax, should be used specifically for those purposes.

That means no more moving the funds to the General Fund. It also means ensuring the vast majority of those monies are used for highway construction and repair. During the last fiscal year, only 11% of Trust Fund spending actually went to highway construction and repairs.

Recently passed legislation designed to put "trust" back in the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) really doesn't do any such thing. First and foremost, the top priority for the next governor will be in creating a stable overall budget, so we actually can stop the continual raids of the TTF. We can get highway funding on the right path immediately, but only if we have the will to take our ongoing budget crisis seriously.

As part of that restructuring, I will reform the Capital Outlay Project process and immediately direct more dollars to state highway infrastructure.

This will allow us to address emergency needs. That fact is that some important projects just can't wait, like expanding access to the New Orleans airport, completing I-49 South in Acadiana, and easing the bottleneck at the I-10 Bridge in Baton Rouge.

The fact that I-10 is the one place in America where the Interstate Highway System collapses to one lane is embarrassing and emblematic of our short-sighted approach to infrastructure planning.

With the proper attention to detail and truly dedicated funding, we'll be able to find both short-term solutions to ease the immediate problems, while implementing the long-term solutions that might take more time to put in place.

Potential Long Term Solutions:

1. Focus state resources on large projects and maintenance of state roads. Local projects should be funded locally, and local governments should be given the freedom to raise the revenue they need for these projects
2. Explore using tolls to build new highways and "mega" projects. Tolls should not be used on existing roads or for maintenance costs, but could possibly serve as a funding mechanism for new roads and bridges to alleviate congestion and expand capacity.
3. Create separate funding mechanisms for ports and roads. Funds collected through vehicle registration and gas taxes should be used to build and maintain roads, while ports, airports and other transportation needs should be funded through taxes and fees associated with their use. Specifically, we should look at funding port maintenance and expansion through fees on vessels using those facilities.
4. Consider establishing an infrastructure bank designed to reduce the cost of bonding for local roads construction projects. Currently, more than 30 states have used an infrastructure bank to various levels of success.
5. Take politics out of determining funding priorities. Projects should be funded based on providing the most benefit to the most people, rather than providing the most benefit to the most well-heeled politicians.

As Governor, Jay Dardenne will push for a better transportation infrastructure. Sign up today for more of Jay's innovative plans for together create a better Louisiana.

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