http://www.unionleader.com/pda-article.aspx?articleId=15b3e62c-dbfc-4b2e-8f01-40e5e8b01b2c
Highway funding: Robbing Peter to pay Paul?
By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007
CONCORD – As the state struggles to find money to fix bridges and highways, the equivalent of nearly two of each three cents in state gasoline taxes is diverted from road construction.
The state's budget sends highway fund money to eight state agencies where workers never touch a shovel, welding torch or bucket of asphalt. Of the total $128 million in gasoline taxes raised in 2007, $79 million, or 62 percent, was used for non-construction purposes, a Legislative Budget Assistant's Office report shows. A total of $107 million was transferred out of Department of Transportation hands in 2007; $28 million of that went to the betterment of local roads.
The Department of Safety, which received $70 million or 30 percent of all highway funds last year, gets the bulk of the transferred funds, mostly to cover costs of highway patrols by state police. But Health and Human Services, state courts, the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Environmental Services and the Office of Information Technology also share in the transfers.
The LBA report on 10 years of highway fund uses was discussed at a legislative hearing yesterday, part of a multi-pronged look at transportation construction plans and funding.
The state highway fund is fed primarily by two sources: the gasoline tax, at 18 cents a gallon, and motor vehicle registrations. The state Constitution requires the money to be used for highway construction, maintenance and "the supervision of traffic thereon." For decades, state budget writers have used highway funds to cover other highway-related costs.
But the pace picked up over the past 10 years. Total transfers of highway funds went from 33 percent in 1999 to 46 percent in 2007. Five years ago, the total transfers away from road construction and maintenance was 42 cents of every dollar raised by gas taxes. That compares to 62 cents in fiscal 2007.
Lawmakers want to make sure that funds transferred to other agencies need to be shifted there. At Safety, for instance, some of the funding pays for state detectives whose work seldom involves highway offenses.
Money is extremely tight at the DOT. The state's 10-year highway plan will take an estimated 35 years to complete unless changes are made to turnpike tolls, gasoline taxes or the plan itself. Acting Transportation Commissioner Charles O'Leary has suggested $1.1 billion in cuts that will get the list to a 22-year plan.
He said yesterday he intends to bring a four- to six-year list of projects that he considers top priorities to a series of public hearings the Executive Council plans around the state.
He called the list a "report of conscience" that will reflect DOT concerns about top safety problems. The list could include roads that have high accident rates because they are so congested. He said it could take from six to 10 years before the state works itself out of the current situation, which cuts in federal highway funds of 30 percent or more will only exacerbate.
The Executive Council needs to produce an updated 10-year plan by mid-December for Gov. John Lynch and the Legislature to consider.
O'Leary said there is no way to complete the current plan on time without a gas tax increase of between 28 cents and 32 cents, and toll hikes of up to $1 in some locations.
O'Leary said that every one-cent increase in the gasoline tax would cost a car owner an average of $10 a year, based on 15,000 miles of driving. Gas tax collections have gone flat in the last two years as drivers conserve fuel by driving less or switching to more fuel-efficient cars.
Gov. Lynch opposes a gas tax increase. His budget director, Linda Hodgdon, said Lynch wants to make sure the state is using current revenue wisely before it starts raising taxes and fees. She reminded legislators that he said in his budget speech the state should not use the highway fund as an ATM to cover other expenses.
"We need to use our money smarter," she said.
While the state's tolls on turnpikes have not been raised since 1989, a cut in the discount for frequent turnpike users boosted toll revenues by 8.3 percent in the year that ended June 30, according to an unaudited DOT report. The discount for E-ZPass users is 30 percent, compared with 50 percent the state gave to token users before E-ZPass was launched in 2005.
Still, the lack of available turnpike funds has all but cancelled plans to make long-delayed improvements to the Spaulding Turnpike in the Rochester area.
The problem lawmakers face in grappling with the transfers is that if the state stops using highway funds for things like courts and state police patrols, it will have to find another way to fund them.
"We all know what's going on here. We do not have the funds to pay for these other essential services," Sen. Peter Burling, D-Cornish, said.
Rep. Candace Bouchard, D-Concord, chair of the highway fund committee, said she's not looking to take money away from Safety and then say tough luck. "You can't help one agency by harming another agency."
In three weeks, Bouchard wants O'Leary to report on how the state will handle a period of zero growth in highway fund revenue, and the funding needed to maintain roads and to move ahead on the widening of Interstate 93 from Salem to Manchester.
