‘Blue Ribbon’ group to study highway finance

The newly created “Arkansas Blue Ribbon Committee on Highway Finance” will hold its first meeting May 21 as part of its legislative mandate to study the best ways the state can support its highway system.

No one from the Fort Smith metro area serves on the committee.

has scheduled its first meeting. The meeting will be held Thursday, May 21, 2009, at 1:30 p.m. in Room 149 of the State Capitol in Little Rock.

The committee was created during the recent legislative session by Act 374, sponsored by Rep. Allen Maxwell, D-Monticello. The purpose of the committee is to “define an adequate system for financing improvements to the state’s highways, county roads, and city streets. The ultimate goal is to propose highway finance legislation that can be brought before the General Assembly in the 2011 legislative session,” according to a press release from the Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department.

The committee is to engage the public in its activities and submit its initial report and recommendations to the Governor’s office and others by July 1, 2010.

“We’ve been asked to accomplish quite a bit in a relatively short timeframe,” Sen. John Paul Capps, D-Searcy, and chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, noted in the release. “So our task is large, but fortunately, our opportunity is even greater.”

Capps was also quoted in the release as saying the “current system of relying primarily on per-gallon fuel taxes and registration fees simply is not producing adequate revenues. We need to explore other options.”

The first meet will be held at 1:30 p.m., May 21, in room 149 of the State Capitol in Little Rock.

Blue Ribbon committee members:
Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway
Sen. John Paul Capps, D-Searcy
Charles Dains, Jr., Conway
Bill Fletcher, Hot Springs
Madison County Judge Wes Fowler, Huntsville
Wayne Hartsfield, Searcy
Mark Lamberth, Batesville
Rep. John Lowery, D-El Dorado
Bill Lynch, Heber Springs
Rep. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia
David Malone, Fayetteville
Rep. Allen Maxwell, D-Monticello
Mark McBryde, Little Rock
Jim McKenzie, Little Rock
Sen. Paul Miller, D-Melbourne
Madison Murphy, El Dorado, member of the Arkansas Highway Commission
Rep. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs
Conway Mayor Tab Townsell
Mike Wilson, Jacksonville