Demand for state road construction projects already far exceeds the available money, and Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox said Thursday that crunch will get worse next year — as the single largest source of revenue for the state road fund is expected to begin declining.
Mattox told the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday that state motor-fuel tax collections are projected to drop $25.8 million in the 2008-09 budget year. “People are buying less gas,” he said.
Mattox said the state will begin to see the impact of higher gas prices this year, as more consumers have switched to more fuel-efficient vehicles and have cut back on travel. “The problem is not isolated to West Virginia,” he said. “It’s a problem with every state in the country.”
All states use per-gallon fuel taxes as a major source of road funds, although Mattox said some states are looking at less-antiquated methods to fund road construction. He said Oregon has a pilot project under way to charge a highway-user fee based on miles driven, not gallons of gasoline purchased. “We’re trying to figure out how to fund these much-needed roads,” he said.
This year, the motor-fuel tax will provide $405.8 million of the Division of Highways’ total $1.34 billion budget, and fuel-tax collections are projected to drop to $380 million in the next budget year. Overall, funding for the state road fund is projected to drop $40.2 million, to $1.15 billion next year.
Without additional funding, the division cannot take on any new road construction projects beyond those already under way, such as Corridor H and the U.S. 35 upgrade. “Our focus is being more drawn to maintaining the resources we already have,” he said.
Given the high costs for gasoline and limited funds to build new roads, Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, said Thursday he believes it’s time to revisit plans to operate commuter rail systems in the state.
Patrick Donovan, director of the Public Port Authority, said the issue has been in “hibernation stage” while the authority has focused on other rail issues, particularly the development of a rail/truck intermodal container facility at Pritchard in Wayne County.
He said a study to determine the viability of regional commuter rail service linking metropolitan corridors in the state — including the Charleston-Huntington corridor — would cost about $300,000.
