Arkansas lawmakers will return to Little Rock later this month to tackle state highway funding.
It will be the third time they've gathered this year and, as before, they're bound to knock heads.
Highways are popular. Paying for them is not.
Nevertheless, Gov. Asa Hutchinson plans to call a May 19 special session to address his plan to spend state reserves and general revenue money to match available federal highway funds.
His plan does not require a tax increase but some lawmakers are developing counter plans to raise gasoline and diesel fuel taxes.
The discussion will flesh out in the coming days. The potential for any highway program at all was rooted in the recent approval of a state budget that incorporated federal dollars for Medicaid expansion.
Now called Arkansas Works, this is the vehicle for buying private insurance for qualifying lower-income Arkansans. Without those federal dollars, not only would more than 200,000 Arkansans been left without coverage, there would have been a substantial hole in the state's overall budget -- and no highway program.
Gov. Hutchinson made that clear before lawmakers adopted the budget. But he eventually persuaded them to build a budget that included Arkansas Works and enough flexibility to squeeze out at least a limited highway program.
He'll use general fund money to do it, if lawmakers accept his plan to match federal highway dollars that will become available this fall.
Meanwhile, four senators are tinkering with draft legislation to raise those excise taxes on gas and diesel fuel. The gas tax is now 21.5 cents per gallon and the diesel tax 22.5 cents per gallon, the same rates they were in 1999.
The senators are Bill Sample of Hot Springs, Ronald Caldwell of Wynne, Jimmy Hickey of Texarkana and Greg Standridge of Russellville. Notably, they are all Republicans and they make up half the membership of the Senate Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs Committee.
They will reportedly go along with Hutchinson's plan to take use money from the state's rainy-day fund and redirect additional dollars to match federal transportation funds in 2017.
But the senators are at least talking about a nickel hike in fuel taxes in fiscal 2018 and another three cents a gallon beginning a year later and continuing through 2021.
Hutchinson has been talking about reallocating sales taxes from new and used cars, shifting other budget elements and spending state surpluses for highways.
Other governors and previous Legislatures have resisted pressure to spend general revenue for highways, but Hutchinson would start nipping into those funds with this plan and gradually increase the bite.
Lawmakers puffed up the rainy-day fund in the recently concluded fiscal session, including $40 million Hutchinson will ask be transferred to the Highway and Transportation Department.
That transfer and other elements of his highway proposal will be included in Hutchinson's call for the upcoming special session.
The rainy-day dollars will cover most of the match money the Highway Department needs this year, but the real fight is over longer-term funding for highways.
That larger debate is not just about the amounts of dollars needed for highways but also about the source of them.
Continued reliance on fuel taxes and similar "user fees" has been a problem in these days of more efficient vehicles.
However, those same four senators have said they're considering putting an initiated act before voters that would replace the proposed gas and diesel tax increases before they expire.
Letting those who use the highways pay for them is still a popular idea, especially among those who fear the impact of transferring general funds away from other state needs.
Whatever the long-term solution is, it will have to be decided by the people.
There's some question whether this Legislature can even come to grips with a shorter-term answer.
Remember, Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature. And many have signed no-tax pledges.
Those pledges will allow them to vote for new taxes if they're offset with other tax cuts. Again, that poses risks to other budget elements like education and everything else supported by general fund dollars.
Gov. Hutchinson didn't sign any such pledge but he's offering a highway plan without tax increases.
It eats into general revenue, which even he once refused to do; but he must now see that as the line of least resistance.
Commentary on 05/11/2016