Following a year of study, the
Commission’s final report will be turned over to Governor Earl Ray Tomblin
later this month and it’s expected to include a recommendation to sell
more than $1 billion in road bonds to pay for future road construction and
maintenance in the Mountain
State
Those bonds would be paid off by
keeping tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike for 30 years beyond 2019 when the
current bonds are paid.
The Commission has also
proposed increases to fees through the Division of Motor Vehicles to generate
more than $77 million a year.
Armstead said it’s too much.
“The people of West Virginia
The main problem is the cost of
building and fixing roads has continued to rise at a time when fuel efficiency
for vehicles has improved, reducing the amount of money flowing into the
Road Fund through the gas tax.
To adequately maintain the roads West Virginia has and build the roads West Virginia
Armstead said the state’s residents
are currently paying the state a lot of money that could be used for
roads. “They need us, as a Legislature and the Governor, to set these
priorities and spend the money that they are already providing to the
government in a more efficient way,” he said.
“What we really need to look at is
setting roads as a priority within our budget, whether that means looking at
funding them (roads) through general revenue and putting all these funds into
the mix and then deciding what our priorities are.”
Earlier this year, the House passed
a bill that would require the Turnpike tolls to be removed when the bonds are
paid in six years. The Senate did not address that proposal.
