An estimated $1 billion in annual funding is needed for repair and upkeep of West Virginia’s current highway system. While more than $300 million has been allocated for repairs, state leaders seek supplementary funding for maintaining roads and bridges in the Mountain State.
By Samantha Cart
Whether it’s a winding back road on the scenic route in Fayette County or a section of I-79 propelling fans toward Mountaineer Field, transportation infrastructure is important in the Mountain State. However, the iconic roadways of West Virginia and their upkeep are a serious issue that is currently being addressed by both the governor’s office and the Legislature. According to the 2015 report released by the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways (BRC), an estimated additional investment of $750 million per year is needed to maintain the current highway system and an extra $380 million per year is required for expansion.
With a potential funding deficit of more than $1 billion annually, a variety of suggestions has been made on how to create a modern transportation system that provides safe roads for both locals and tourists.
“By efficiently allowing the flow of people and freight, transportation supports job creation, moves products to market, fosters economic growth and saves lives,” says Mike Clowser, the executive director of the Contractors Association of West Virginia (CAWV). “While the Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways report presents a compelling argument on the vital role transportation plays in the lives of all West Virginians, it is a given that this funding level could never be achieved. Those who have studied the situation believe that a more realistic goal is around $400 million annually. Additional funding for highways will create opportunities for contractors and their employees, and all of West Virginia would benefit from those investments.”
Clowser’s job includes promoting infrastructure investments and building relationships with state and federal contracting agency leaders, architects, engineers, owners and legislators. While increased funding for road repairs will generate more work for his contractors, a study by the CAWV suggests that a $500 million annual increase in highway funding would create 10,000 new jobs with 50 percent of those being outside of the construction industry.
Finding Additional Funds
The BRC has proposed a variety of ways to supplement the necessary funds, including increasing the sales tax, gas tax and Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) fees. Clowser says fees associated with the DMV mirror other state road fund revenues in that they have not kept up with inflation: West Virginia DMV fees have not been increased since the 1970s.
According to state Senator Chris Walters, however, going down this path will put an unnecessary burden on West Virginians since the roads are traveled by people from multiple states. “I feel that if we are going to increase revenue, we need to do so in a manner that affects the pockets of our citizens the least,” he says.
The proposal to increase the sales tax by 1 percent would generate approximately $215 million and was inspired by a successful measure taken by the State of Virginia. “With West Virginia being a state that has a lot of competition on its borders, it puts us in a position that we need to be cognizant of,” says Walters. “If we increase our sales tax, we are putting our border businesses at a comparative disadvantage. Also, the amount of money that would be generated would not be worth the financial impact to our residents and retailers. I feel that the majority of this tax would only burden West Virginia citizens, and we do not have a population the size of Virginia that would equate to enough revenue to truly fix this road problem.”
Similarly, the proposal to raise the tax on gasoline would not generate enough revenue to make it worthwhile because coal and natural gas severance taxes are down. Raising the gas tax would not create enough funds to make up the deficit, let alone augment it.
To offset a potential burden on West Virginians, the Legislature is looking for ways to create a more efficient government and find savings within. “We are looking at all of our state agencies and departments and trying to find the inefficiencies and clean those up to save money,” says Walters. “We don’t want to just go to taxpayers and ask for more money to throw at a problem when we’re not managing our government well. We want to do better managing our own interior issues.”
One example of this concentrated effort is an ongoing performance audit of the West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH). While the audit is being done as part of the overall spending cleanup effort, it has been discussed in direct relation to road repairs. “We want to assess where the WVDOH is not allocating resources correctly,” Walters says. “We’re doing this audit to correct the problem and make our dollars go farther when it comes to maintaining our roads.”
The Toll Road Debate
Much debate also surrounds the proposal of additional toll roads and the current tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike as a source of revenue. The West Virginia Parkways Authority, which maintains the turnpike, is scheduled to pay off the outstanding bonds that were issued in 1989 in 2019. The legislation states that if the turnpike’s condition and repair are to the satisfaction of the WVDOH commissioner, the roadway will be transferred to and maintained by the WVDOH, free of tolls. The revenue from tolls provides funds for maintenance, operations and capital repairs for the 88-mile turnpike, an avenue that provides citizens with a safe, secure, efficient transportation system.
“I believe tolls would be the greatest benefit to our state’s population with the least impact on our citizens’ finances,” says Walters. “We can see this illustrated within the turnpike’s numbers. The West Virginia Turnpike generated $84.9 million in revenue in 2014, and of that, more than 74 percent was paid for by out-of-state residents. However, tolls are vastly unpopular. Even when proposing tax credits back to West Virginians, our citizens have expressed a disdain toward a toll plaza system.”
Walters reasons that while the BRC’s proposals such as raising gas and sales taxes and DMV fees would be completely paid for by West Virginia citizens, the burden of tolls would be shared with out-of-state travelers. “It’s about finding the best idea among a list of unpopular options. In the 2016 session, the Legislature will be looking for ways to come up with as much revenue as possible so that we do not have to ask taxpayers to take on more hardship,” he says.
Aside from its severe unpopularity, there are other challenges to opening new tolls as a form of revenue. Congress banned tolls on interstates and all federally funded highways in 1956 when the highway system was created. However, a proposal by the Obama administration in 2014 suggested that the ban be removed to allow states to decide whether or not to administer tolls in an effort to address the decrease in federal funding for highway repairs. According to Walters, federal law states that tolls can be placed on new construction, but existing construction cannot be tolled.
Corridor H, a route designated to stimulate growth in rural Appalachia, has been debated and re-evaluated countless times since 1965 and finally broke ground in 2000. The route has been under construction since and came to a standstill when the 6.7-mile section spanning from Baker to Wardensville, WV, opened to traffic. Because only newly constructed roadways are open to tolls, Corridor H, the King Coal Highway and Route 35 are the only opportunities West Virginia has to create a new toll road. As such, Corridor H has been considered as a potential revenue port for roadway funding. “There is just no support from the public for tolling,” says Walters. “You get a ton of pushback for suggesting a toll on a road to finish it or create revenue.”
The BRC determined that the estimated annual needs for preservation of the turnpike infrastructure will be $59 million with early focus on roadways and a mounting emphasis on deteriorating bridges. “The BRC recommends that the current structure be maintained and continue the tolls,” says Clowser. “It also recommends a number of other items geared toward efficiencies and technical changes to make the turnpike as cost efficient as possible.”
The turnpike receives no funding from the state or federal government. If the tolls are removed, the WVDOH would require millions of the existing repair funds to maintain it.
Offsetting Federal Funding
Although Governor Earl Ray Tomblin recently announced the WVDOH has allocated a record high of more than $300 million for paving and road repairs statewide, a steady decline in federal funding has been the biggest factor in the degradation of the roadways. West Virginia ranks sixth in the nation for state-maintained highway systems. Historically, the Mountain State has taken the lead on state and county road improvements instead of sharing the burden with its counties, cities and towns. Federal revenues provided $2.26 on every dollar spent by the state on road improvements, which accounted for 34 percent of all state spending on road construction, maintenance and repairs from 2007-2011. The decline in federal funding has been consistent for the past 15 years, as the government has requested states become more responsible for their own infrastructure.
According to the governor’s office, continued federal funding is critical for large-scale construction, maintenance and repairs of West Virginia roads, highways and bridges, but there’s a push to become less reliant on federal money. Tomblin introduced a bill during the 2013 legislative session proposing that the WVDOH use public-private partnerships to fund road construction and repair projects. In August 2014, he announced the first public-private partnership bid for a 3.3-mile section of the Coalfields Expressway. The BRC proposals are an example of other ways the Mountain State could self-sustain its roads and highways without the help of the federal government.
Tomblin met with Senate President Bill Cole and House Speaker Tim Armstead to discuss ways to maintain and improve current highway infrastructure, prioritize existing revenues and review existing fee structures to improve roadways and increase economic development opportunities. According to Cole, along with the decrease of federal funding, population decline has also played a role in the waning revenue for road repair.
“When we lose both funding and people, obviously we find ourselves with less money to make these repairs,” says Cole. “There is little we can do directly to affect our federal funding, but I do believe we can do things to try to grow our population. Having a modern, safe and reliable infrastructure and network of highways is going to be a key component of that kind of economic development. So, in a sense, we find ourselves in somewhat of a chicken-and-egg situation. Our roads are not in the condition they need to be to attract new business, but we find ourselves without a clear solution to finding the money necessary to make all of those repairs at one time. This is a solution that I think will have to come over several years, not just one or two legislative sessions. The deterioration of our state’s roads and highways didn’t just happen in the last 10 months. However, there is absolutely no question that we are at a critical juncture and the time to fix the roads is right now.”
As West Virginia works toward building stronger infrastructure and a thriving economy, it is critical to maintain a reliable and safe network of roads, highways and bridges. “Everyone has a story about their local roads, and everyone has had or knows someone who has had a flat tire or bent rim,” says Clowser. “West Virginia’s transportation system is critical to the state’s tourism, manufacturing, oil and gas, ethane, coal, chemical, mining and agriculture sectors. Local, regional and state economic performance is improved when a region’s surface transportation system is expanded or repaired.”
