AASHTO Journal, 8 May 2015
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has created a 20-person panel of state, local and business officials to bring him options before yearend on how to better fund roadway infrastructure investments.
That “Governor’s Working Group on Highway Funding,” includes Scott Bennett, director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, the governor’s budget director and the director of the finance department or his designee. It also has legislative leaders on transportation and budget issues.
Hutchinson named the panel members May 6 and included road construction and trucking industry representatives. Here is the full list of members.
In an April 23 executive order creating the advisory group, Hutchinson said the current revenue stream is insufficient to meet the system’s needs for maintenance and growth in capacity, and the state needs to move beyond a long-term reliance on fuel user charges that will generate less revenue as vehicles become more fuel-efficient.
In addition, “the future of the Federal Highway Trust Fund is uncertain,” Hutchinson wrote at a time the federal program authority faces a May 31 expiration.
While state agencies that depend on the federal funds expect Congress to extend the trust fund this month, Arkansas is one of several states that dropped planned road and bridge construction projects from this year’s schedule because they could not count on federal dollars arriving without interruption as project bills come due.
Arkansas has spelled out the number of deferred projects and estimated contract value of that delayed work in a table showing the impact of federal spending, in this “invest” website maintained by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
Just this week, a Utah state senator in remarks to Congress added that state to the list of those delaying highway work over the federal funding uncertainty, saying Utah has $65 million in pavement projects on hold.
Hutchinson’s April 23 order said the AHTD and independent studies have “determined that the highways, roads, streets and bridges of this state are in dire need of construction, reconstruction and maintenance.”
The document underscored how that infrastructure condition affects people and businesses in the state. “An efficient transportation system is critical for Arkansas’s economy and the quality of life of the state’s residents,” the executive order said. “Well-maintained roadways are necessary for economic development.”
Hutchinson charged the Working Group to bring him back a set of funding ideas by Dec. 15. Along the way, he said the panel should “actively involve the public as full and valued partners in determining adequate financing of the present and future needs of the state highways, county roads and city streets within the state.”
And he said the group should provide recommendations “to create a more reliable, modern and effective system of highway funding.”