DALLAS -- West Virginia has a transportation spending gap of more than $1.1 billion per year according to a report from a specially appointed highway commission that has recommended $1 billion of new revenue bonds plus $300 million of road bonds and $141 million of additional annual revenues to fill it.
The 31-member West Virginia Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways, which was appointed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomlin in 2012, said the state needs to spend an additional $750 million per year on highway maintenance and another $380 million per year to expand the state highway grid to meet growing demand.
"It's critically important that we maintain our roads at a certain level," said West Virginia Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox. "It's only going to get worse unless we take some measures and address the situation."
The commission studied new revenue options that could have generated almost $420 million a year to help meet the state's unfunded transportation needs, but the final report recommended only $141 million of new annual revenues, said Robert Orders Jr., chairman of the commission's revenue committee.
"I hope we'll look at this as the beginning to the resolution of this problem and not the end because the problem's not solved," he said. "This is far short of the revenue needed to maintain and build our highway system."
The state may need an additional $59 million per year for road maintenance beginning in 2019, which is not included in the funding gap total. That's when the last of the West Virginia Parkways Authority's revenue bonds issued in 1989 will be retired and the tolls on the 88-mile, four-lane West Virginia Turnpike will be lifted, the panel said.
Without the tolls, which are mostly paid by non-state residents, the state would be responsible for the $59 million cost of annual maintenance on the turnpike's 426 lane-miles and 18 bridges, the panel said. The toll road generated $85 million of revenue in fiscal 2014.
The report, issued last week, said the tolls should be retained and the parkways authority should be directed by the legislature to issue $1 billion of bonds supported by future toll increases.
Most of the revenue bond proceeds would be earmarked for statewide road and bridge projects, with 25% reserved for work within the four counties along the parkway's route. The tolls would also provide $50 million to capitalize a state infrastructure bank that could offer low-interest loans for local road projects, the report said.
The panel also recommended that the legislature raise the cap on state-issued grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds supported by federal highway grants to $500 million from the current GARVEE limit of $200 million.
Secretary of Administration Jason Pizatella, who served as the commission's chairman, said the report should serve as a roadmap for lawmakers to begin addressing West Virginia's transportation needs.
"It's just a matter of using this document as a starting point to be able to make some hard choices," he said. "It's not going to be easy."
Enabling legislation is needed that would make state projects eligible for federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loans, the report said.
Increased reliance on public-private partnerships for transportation projects could also result in lower costs to taxpayers, the report said.
"Traditional highway funding mechanisms cannot continue to provide for the future growth of the state's highway system," it said.
Revenue increases recommended by the commission include a 1% increase in the state motor vehicle sales tax and higher registration fees. The recommended revenue options also included new fees of $200 per year fee for alternatively-fueled vehicles and a $100 per year tax on electric vehicles. -
