“It’s
one that would allow us to raise the necessary funds to invest in our
infrastructure statewide for roads without putting all of it necessarily
on the backs of West Virginians ,” said Jason
Pizatella, chief counsel to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and chairman of the
commission.
After
nine public hearings around the state and a survey of nearly 1,400 residents,
the commission presented their three pronged-approach for the future of highway
funding, one which has a centerpiece of allowing the state Parkways Authority
to issue $1 billion in road bonds.
Pizatella
said the proposal is modeled after a recent $1.5 billion bond issue by the Ohio
Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission and would take advantage of a current
bond mechanism on the West Virginia Turnpike to raise future funds.
“That
would allow us to raise a certain amount of money and back that debt service
with future toll revenue as opposed to higher taxes or higher fees,” said
Pizatella.
The
plan would keep tolls on the Turnpike for another 30 years and ultimately
require Parkways to increase tolls on the Turnpike. However, Pizatella adds
that the proposal also comes with a few extra bonuses.
“We
built in certain aspects of the proposal that would require a certain
percentage of the revenue to be spent in the four counties that the Turnpike
travels through and also those that have West Virginia E-ZPass’ and are
currently part of the discount program that was put in place in 2009, we’re
going to freeze those rates for a number of years,” he said.
The
commission also is proposing to raise various Division of Motor Vehicle
fees to the tune of 77 million dollars a year. On top of that, the commission
proposed dedicating sales tax collections on purchases of auto parts, services
or repairs to the state Road Fund, to generate between $20 and $25
million a year.
During Wednesday’s meeting,
commissioners adopted most of the recommendations that they will submit to the
governor later this month.
However,
they delayed voting on the $1 billion Parkways bond proposal until the
commission’s September 19 meeting. That will allow themselves time to
study the plan in detail.
It will be up to Tomblin to
determine which proposals will be presented to the Legislature in January.
