A proposed highway package, including a 20-year bond issue to fund a major maintenance program, is apparently dead for this session of the Legislature.
The state House of Representatives last week throttled one of the two bills in the package sought by the Arkansas Highway Commission with the backing of Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Only 38 of the 100 House members voted for the measure, which would have referred the bond issue to Arkansas voters. A majority vote of 51 was necessary for passage.
You would have thought the Legislature itself was being asked to raise taxes, even though the bill's sponsor told them otherwise.
"I'm not coming here today to ask you all to raise the revenue," explained Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, who carried the legislation to the House.
"I'm coming here today to ask you all to let the citizens of the state of Arkansas decide if this is the way they want to fund their highway system."
Still, only 38 House members voted for the bill while 35 voted against it, 20 didn't vote at all and seven voted "present."
Douglas asked that the vote be expunged and he intended to see if another vote might change the outcome.
Highway Commission Chairman Dick Trammel of Rogers has since concluded that neither this bill nor its companion is going anywhere this session.
The companion bill would have actually levied a proposed sales tax on motor fuels contingent upon voter approval of the planned bond issue.
The expectation was that the tax would generate enough money to pay the bonds off, allowing the state Highway and Transportation Department to dedicate $200 million annually to highways.
It would also have solved a department challenge to find the necessary state match to available federal dollars each year.
What apparently happened last week, despite sponsor Douglas' appeal, is that many in the Republican-dominated House somehow equated referring a tax question to voters with voting for a tax increase.
Many of these same lawmakers signed no-tax pledges before their election, Trammel noted. He said "lobbyist powers that be" promised to get those lawmakers beat in the next election if they voted for the bond issue.
Trammel declined to name the lobbyists who influenced the vote and instead emphasized the need to resolve what has become a nagging, long-term highway-funding problem.
Trammel acknowledged he is disappointed and frustrated and worried about parts of Arkansas' expansive highway system crumbling into disrepair.
But he is equally determined to find a reliable funding source for highways.
"We lost the battle but, with the help of the people, we will win the war one of these days," he said.
"It's a 'we' thing," according to Trammel, who stressed the need for the public to buy into how the state funds its highways.
The process may start with the Highway Commission, the governor, the Legislature and others, like the Arkansas Good Roads Foundation, he said. But any proposed solution ultimately requires the people to vote for or against it.
This time, the House stopped the process abruptly, not allowing the proposed bond issue to reach the people.
Trammel sounded confident that voters would have endorsed the proposal, agreeing to an extra sales tax, which would have been levied on the wholesale price of gasoline and diesel fuel.
Highway backers did successfully sell a half-percent sales tax hike for highway improvements to voters a while back.
Maybe they could have sold this 6.5 percent sales tax on fuel.
Or not.
We're not going to know. The House of Representatives won't even let them try.
Or should we say, some House members' handlers -- those moneyed people who promised to get them beat -- won't let it happen.
Commentary on 03/26/2017