Our View The bumpy road that is state highway funding

Our View

The bumpy road that is state highway funding

Based on what Republican politicians and state bureaucrats believe, the general consensus among most Arkansas is that they would be willing to jump on board with a long-term road construction plan and would be willing to support voting to make a now temporary tax permanent.

Seems though Democrat Sen. Keith Ingram, West Memphis, vice chairman of the Senate Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs Committee, doesn’t favor letting us, the voters decide, but prefers leaving that decision up to him and fellow politicians.

Ingram told reporters that it is evident to him that the mood of the Republican led Legislature that they want Arkansans to have a stake in this matter.

Based on the fact that this is a tax on the people we would think the majority of voters and taxpayers would prefer deciding whether or not to make this temporary tax permanent.

Ingram said, “Sometimes I think we shirk our duties when we don’t vote on things people send us here for.”

This seemingly never ending subject on the need for more road money came the other day when Scott Bennett, the director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, painted a bleak outlook for short-term highway finances at both the state and federal levels during a recent Highway Commission meeting with politicians.

This temporary tax, voted upon by us, the taxpayers, came about last year as a means of generating the state’s share of federal match money to fund specific road projects.

The legislation relies largely on the agency receiving a share of the general-revenue surplus to help raise the $50 million annually the department would need for its match.

Under the legislation, the department would receive 25 percent of the surplus has average about $48 million.

The skeptics, including Ingram, are saying they fear unless state revenue picks up the state will end its fiscal year on June 30 with a nearly $200 million surplus.

Ingram, who opposed the proposal, said, “This was a smoke-and-mirrors deal,” referring to the Republican led legislation, and said it is prediction the general revenue surplus is “going to be very, very small.”

Isn’t it ironic that while the predictions among some political pessimists that state tax dollars will be shy of predictions that Ingram also supports Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s plan to cut state income taxes so the state’s “low-income” can get a tax break.

Listen, we all want our roads, highways and bridges maintained, and in all honesty, have no issue with making this temporary tax permanent, but as we have previously and repeatedly pointed out, even money generated from this tax won’t satisfy the bureaucrats clamoring for even more.

There is just never enough and rest assured, Mr.

Bennett will be back warning that if politicians don’t give more road revenue some projects will have to be eliminated.