Sens. Boozman, Inhofe Say Road, River Work Require New Funding Approaches

Ryan Saylor with our content partner, The City Wire, reports:

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said during a visit to Fort Smith Tuesday (Aug. 19) that while he is against higher taxes, the gasoline tax that funds the Highway Trust Fund should be re-worked as a “percentage” versus a “centage” tax in order to keep infrastructure projects moving forward across the nation.

Inhofe, a senior member of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, was in Fort Smith with U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., to see the area’s infrastructure needs and to meet with the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority for a question-and-answer session Tuesday morning. The meeting was held at the Arkansas River Valley Nature Center at Chaffee Crossing.

The statement by Oklahoma’s senior senator was in response to a question by RITA board member George Moschner, an executive vice president of risk management and compliance at Baldor Electric Co., about how to secure funding to complete the section of Interstate 49 between Alma and Chaffee Crossing. The section would include a bridge across the Arkansas River and is estimated to cost at least $350 million.

Inhofe first said locals must get the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department to make completion of that section of I-49 its number one priority in order to get the attention of Washington.

“The second thing is you’re going to see coming up between now and May a funding mechanism that is going to change the way we’re looking at funding our roads and highways. And again, this is not an announcement on my part because I still am going to maintain opposition to any new tax increases. However, I don’t see that. It’s more of a user fee than a tax increase and it’s going to have to affect that. So those are two things that are going to have to happen before (that stretch of I-49 can be funded).”

The federal gas tax has not been raised by Congress since 1993 and stands at 18.4 cents per gallon, though diesel fuel is taxed at 24.4 cents per gallon. Boozman, Arkansas’ junior senator who serves on the EPW Committee with Inhofe, echoed the Oklahoman’s sentiments regarding re-tooling funding. The federal Highway Trust Fund recently came close to insolvency before a short-term funding bill extended funding until May 2015.

“The problem, as you know more than anybody, is the Highway Trust Fund is not solvent right now because cars get much better gas mileage than they used to,” Boozman said. “With the downturn in the economy (and) high fuel prices, people just aren’t driving as much. That impacts the state, as well as the federal government. So as Jim alluded to, we’re going to have to figure out how we can get a revenue stream in there to support that and there’s going to be a lot of controversy about that, but in the end we’re going to have to come together and actually get that done.”

The two Senators also discussed maintenance issues along the Arkansas River. Inhofe also told the Fort Smith group that he expected to take chairmanship of the EPW Committee if Republicans take over the U.S. Senate, which he expects to happen.

Read more from The City Wire here.