About half of the top 40 highway projects Arkansas most needs to boost its economic competitiveness and improve its quality of life are included in a proposed $1.8 billion construction program that would go forward if voters approve a tax proposal on the general election ballot, according to a national research group backed by organizations that promote road improvements.
Although the report doesn’t specifically endorse the initiative, backers hope the timing of the release a week before the election will boost Ballot Issue No. 1, which would finance a bond issue with a temporary 0.5 percent sales tax and focus on four-lane highway projects that backers say will relieve congestion and improve safety.
“We want to make sure that as people are going to the polls, they have all the information that’s possible so they can make an in-formed decision when they go to the ballot box,” said Carolyn Bonifas Kelly, associate director of research and communications for The Road Information Program Inc., at a news conference Tuesday at the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Little Rock.
All 40 projects would be built within 10 years if voters adopt the initiative, said Scott Bennett, director of the state Highway and Transportation Department.
With at least 18 to be paid for by the ballot initiative, at least another five would be built under the separate interstate repair program that voters approved a year ago, and the rest with regular department revenue from state and federal taxes on fuel and registration fees, he said.
The Road Information Program describes itself as a 41-year-old Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization that “researches, evaluates and distributes economic and technical data on surface transportation issues.” Its sponsors includes insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and businesses supporting “efficient and safe” roads. Its Arkansas members include Weaver-Bailey Construction Inc. of El Paso and the Arkansas chapter of the Associated General Contractors, which has contributed at least $60,000 to the campaign for the ballot issue.
The Road Information Program started with 50 or 60 projects from the department about six months ago before arriving at the final 40, according to Kelly, who said her organization has done about 20 research reports for other states this year.
Bennett said he was heartened that the report’s conclusions generally matched that of his agency, which is focusing development of a four-lane highway grid system on the half of the state’s highways that carry 90 percent of the traffic. “We really think this is a good verification that we are moving in the right direction.”
Teresa Oelke, Arkansas director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy organization that opposes theinitiative, blasted backers of the initiative for presenting a “false choice.”
“If these roads are important, the Highway Department should be prioritizing taxpayer dollars and expending existing funds to make sure important projects are built,” Oelke said. “Instead of prioritizing existing taxpayer money, they simply say the system is broke and put out their hand for moremoney.
“Instead of demanding an ever larger portion of families’ paychecks and driving up their costs of everyday life with higher taxes, our leaders must look at every other option first. It makes me crazy.”
But Bennett said supporters of better roads are turning to the sales tax proposal because the traditional primary source of revenue for highways, taxes on gasoline and diesel, are flat because more fuel efficient vehicles are traveling more miles but generating less fuel-tax revenue per mile, while federal highway officials repeatedly tell Arkansas and other states they no longer can rely on ever-increasing amounts of federal highway aid.
He also argued that using bonds to speed the work rather than the “pay as you go” process the agency traditionally employs would be a hedge against inflation. In 35 years, $100 million has gone from paying to widen almost 150 miles of roads to paying to widen just 15 miles of roads, Bennett said.
Under Ballot Issue No. 1, the Highway and Transportation Department would receive 70 percent of the proceeds from the tax, under a traditional split of money for state road construction, or about $160 million annually for the 10-year life of the tax. The cities and countieswould split the remaining 30 percent, or about $35 million annually.
The proposal also creates a permanent state-aid street fund, similar to the existing state-aid county fund, that cities could tap for street projects. One penny of the existing pergallon motor-fuels tax, worth about $20 million a year, would go to that fund.
Mark Lamberth, co-chairman of Move Arkansas Forward, the organization that is financing a television advertisement campaign for the initiative, said the local impact of the road-building program is significant.
“We have learned through our Issue One campaign that local jobs created by state highway, county road and city street projects are what resonates with voters when it comes to the projects that Issue One will fund over the next 10 years,” he said.
If voters approve Ballot Issue No. 1, about 20 multilane projects would be of regional significance in their areas of the state. Among the projects:
Improving the Interstate 30 corridor from North Little Rock to Little Rock, including the widening of the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River between the two cities.
Widening Interstate 540 to six lanes between Fayetteville and Bentonville.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/31/2012