Arkansas voters may get the chance to fund a serious highway maintenance program. Or not.
State lawmakers are considering a package of bills to allow a 20-year highway bond issue and to raise more than $200 million annually to pay it off.
Voters would have to agree to the bond issue in a proposed November 2018 election, as the legislation is now drawn.
If approved, the money would come from applying to state's 6.5 percent state sales tax to the wholesale price of gasoline and diesel fuel.
That money would come in addition to existing state and federal excise taxes on fuel that motorists pay at the pump. The Arkansas excise tax is 21.5 cents per gallon on gasoline and 22.5 cents on diesel. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and $24.4 cents on diesel.
State authorities have been trying for years to find another major highway funding source that voters will accept.
This year's proposed legislation, House Bills 1726 and 1727 by Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, cleared a House committee late last week and are on the House agenda now, although it may be a while before the House takes them up.
The legislation has the support of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who asked Douglas to include the call for a public vote on the bond issue.
"I can't think of any good arguments against referring to the people an opportunity to vote on a highway plan in a general election," Hutchinson said last week.
For the record, Hutchinson didn't say whether he'd actually campaign for the bond issue if it goes to voters in 2018. He is expected to seek re-election that year and may be busy with his own race.
In the meantime, Hutchinson also talked recently of the need to come up with $40 million to $50 million to match $200 million in federal highway dollars expected to be available to the state this fall.
"We don't want to leave that federal money on the table," he said, explaining that he asked state Highway Director Scott Bennett about finding the money for the match.
They believe they can "cobble" together enough state and local match money to secure the federal dollars.
Cobbling together funds to tackle projects large and small has become routine practice for the department that oversees a 16,000-mile highway system.
There is never enough money available to meet all the demands in Arkansas. That won't change, but Bennett sees plenty of ways to put another $200 million a year to work, largely addressing maintenance needs throughout the highway system.
He and members of the Arkansas Commission were there to support the legislation last week.
The highway director effectively began the campaign pitch for the tax hike, telling lawmakers highway repairs would help both agriculture and tourism in the state while creating 2,300 jobs in the first year alone.
Motorists would experience less wear and tear on their vehicles, too, he said, while the average Arkansan would pay about $75 a year in new sales taxes.
An opponent of the bills challenged that number, suggesting the cost to the average Arkansan might be more than $200 annually.
Obviously, there is already opposition to the legislation, which may not be all that well received among the conservative Republicans who control both houses of the Legislature. They'd much prefer to be remembered for cutting taxes, not proposing new ones.
The bills did get out of the House Transportation Committee, but they have a long way to go before Arkansas voters get a chance to weigh in -- if they do at all.
Commentary on 03/15/2017