Intermodal Authority funding relatively safe from budget cuts
by October 23, 2009 12:30 pm 55 views
A recently announced $100 million cut to the Arkansas budget will not likely jeopardize the remaining funding for the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority.
Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, successfully pushed legislation during the 87th Arkansas General Assembly that provided $375,000 from the state’s General Improvement Fund (GIF) to get an intermodal authority on its feet.
The effort to create a regional intermodal authority began again in earnest on Feb. 18, and resulted in a May 27 meeting in which key governmental and business leaders in Crawford and Sebastian counties agreed to push the effort.
The goal was to create a structure and facilities “that would enhance regional freight management and advance the competitiveness of the region’s business.” In other words, the group pushing hopes to maximize the use of all forms of transportation — rail, barge, air, interstate — so as to reduce shipping costs and increase service options for regional business and industries.
On Aug. 6, the governing bodies in the two counties signed the document creating the authority.
At the authority’s first board meeting Sept. 16, Green presented a $243,000 check to John Guthrie, executive director of the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District. The remaining $132,000 is to be paid in the summer of 2010, Green said.
Green recently told The City Wire that the Oct. 20 budget cut move by Gov. Mike Beebe is not likely to cut out the remaining authority funding. Beebe made the move after a decline in tax collections for the first quarter of fiscal year 2010. Total tax collections for Arkansas for the first three months of fiscal 2010 (July-September) are $1.274 billion, down 7.2% from the same period of 2008 and 6.4% off the revenue forecast.
Green said alterations to the GIF budget — funds placed outside the regular state operations budget — would require action by both the Arkansas House and Senate.
“I really don’t see that happening,” Green said. “It would really have to get bad before they (House and Senate members) would want to open that up and potentially see their projects also get cut.”