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Patching up R.I.'s roads [The Providence Journal, R.I.](Providence Journal (RI) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 12--PROVIDENCE -- How to patch the potholes, keep the buses running and keep the state's bridges from crumbling further? Transportation and transit supporters think they have some answers in legislation that would fundamentally change the way the state supports its tattered transportation system. The proposals will certainly be controversial, but Rep. Arthur Handy, a Cranston Democrat who is sponsoring the bills, told the House Finance Committee Tuesday that he's "willing to take a little heat." Officials' laments over transportation financing reached a peak in January 2009, when the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on transportation funding put numbers to the problem. The state, it said, needs to spend about $285 million more per year than it does now from federal highway aid, the state gasoline tax and other sources, for the next 10 years to bring the transportation system up to par. That adds up to $2.8 billion. Handy's proposals would start paying the bill with a new fuel tax, increased vehicle registration fees and, perhaps, a direct tax on driving itself. All three plans have been talked about before, but Handy has put them into legislation that would implement two and study the third. So far, the reaction is applause. At the Finance Committee hearing, a parade of representatives of more than three dozen health, labor, environmental and other groups said that the state's transportation funding system has failed as they supported Handy's bills. "Present transportation funding is flawed and inadequate," said longtime transit advocate Barry Schiller. On transportation, he said "Rhode Island is on a trajectory ... to sink." The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority has been fending off budget deficits and possible bus-service cuts for years as its budget slipped in and out of the red. The state Department of Transportation is spending every dollar it can get in federal highway aid and money borrowed by the state. Nonetheless, the state's roads are in poor repair and many of its bridges, large and small, need repairs or replacement. Both agencies depend heavily on the state's 32-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax, but that revenue is slipping as cars become more efficient and people drive less. One of Handy's bills would create a highway maintenance and transit trust fund that would benefit the state highway system, local road repairs and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Half of the trust fund money would go to the DOT, 35 percent to RIPTA and 15 percent for repairs to local roads and streets, which are largely left out of the state's highway program because they don't qualify for federal funds. It would be financed with a sharp increase in vehicle registration fees and a new gross-receipts tax on petroleum products. The trust fund bill would add a $40-surcharge to the biannual auto and light truck registration fee, to $100 every two years. The blue-ribbon panel said that would yield about $23 million per year. Handy's bill would also add a new gross-receipts tax on fuel at the wholesale level. The governor's panel estimated that a tax equivalent to an extra 10 cents per gallon would yield $44 million per year. In a second bill, Handy asks for creation of a commission to look at a radical change, making drivers pay directly for the wear and tear their driving causes through a small tax on every mile. That mechanism is called a vehicle-miles traveled tax. Instead of taxing road use indirectly, as with a gasoline tax or a registration fee, a VMT tax would charge for miles actually traveled. The governor's panel suggested a tax of a half-cent per mile, estimating that could raise $50 million per year. At that rate, driving 15,000 miles per year would mean a $75 tax bill. The trick with VMT taxes is figuring out how far cars have been driven. Handy says he's leaning toward a cheap, low-tech approach: Checking each vehicle's odometer when it's inspected or its registration is renewed. Handy acknowledges two problems with that approach, out-of-state drivers who drive a lot in Rhode Island and Rhode Island drivers who do most of their driving elsewhere. The out-of-state drivers would use the Rhode Island roads for free, and the Rhode Island drivers would pay in Rhode Island for miles they drove somewhere else. A complicated but potentially more accurate approach would involve global positioning systems, with a GPS device installed in each vehicle. But along with the expense of the equipment and operating the system, that would mean a nightmare for privacy advocates: The goal of the system is to keep track of all vehicles, all the time. To reach the $285-million target, the panel relied on a long list of possible funding sources that went far beyond Handy's proposals. Among the ones Handy has avoided is collecting tolls where the major highways cross state borders. (The only tolls in the state now are collected on the Pell Bridge from Jamestown to Newport.) KEY POINTSTo fix a tattered transportation system Hike the registration fee for cars and light trucks Proposal would raise biannual fee by $40 to $100. Add a new fuel tax A 3 percent gross-receipts tax on petroleum product distributors. Study a tax on miles traveled A "VMT," vehicle miles traveled, tax on miles actually driven. [email protected] To see more of The Providence Journal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.projo.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Providence Journal, R.I. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |