The County Line - Fall Issue 2003
Counties Looking for Next Once-in-a-Lifetime
Project
With the state's once-in-a-lifetime
bridge bond issue now half complete, it's time to start
planning for the next once-in-a-lifetime program.
Although it's hard to believe,
it has been more than three years since Alabama voters
approved the utilization of interest from the Alabama
Trust Fund for the construction of replacement bridges
on Alabama's rural road system. The passage of this program
is an achievement that still demonstrates the ability
of county government to respond when its citizens are
in need.
The state was wasting millions
of educational dollars paying for buses to detour around
these bridges, and businesses were transporting products
unnecessary distances because our bridge system had been
allowed to fall into disrepair. Counties stepped up with
a program, the Governor and the Legislature embraced that
program, and during the last three years counties have
worked extremely hard to replace bridges in an orderly
and efficient manner.
The program is set to conclude
in November 2005, although the actual construction of
those last bridges will continue well into 2006. But once
the project is complete, it will be very hard for county
government to go back to the mundane task of doing little
more than "maintenance" work on the county road
system.
Now that we've demonstrated
the ability of counties to respond, we must look for another
program to further enhance our state's rural transportation
system. One must assume that the performance of counties
on this enormous bridge program will make it easier to
"sell" the members of the Legislature on another
program at the local level.
As we look for that next program,
the biggest challenge may be to focus our efforts on just
one segment of the enormous needs in our rural transportation
system.
One avenue would be to continue
the bridge program well beyond November of 2005. Certainly
no one believed the $250 million bridge program would
replace every deficient county bridge in the state. And
although we have made a big dent in the problem, the list
of deficient bridges in Alabama is substantial enough
to keep us busy for several more years.
The new federal highway funding
legislation is almost certain to include provisions that
would allow for the current program, which utilizes an
approach referred to as "Garvey Bonds", to be
extended into the future. This current approach uses federal
funds to pay for 80 percent of the cost, with the state
providing the 20 percent "match".
The match necessary to fund
the first five years of this bridge program was made available
through a constitutional amendment. If the program is
to continue, it will be necessary to identify a new funding
source for the matching funds.
Simply put, the rural bridges
have decayed because counties have not been financially
able to replace them under a routine maintenance schedule.
Without a source for the necessary local matching funds,
the bridge program cannot continue beyond 2005.
A second alternative would
be to focus attention on the need for road resurfacing
in rural areas. The needs in rural areas are well-documented.
But such an endeavor would also require an injection of
funds far beyond those available to counties on the local
level.
The current level of tax proceeds
received from the state's motor fuel taxes is hardly substantial
enough to carry out the daily operation of the county
road and bridge departments. That leaves little money
for doing "construction" and "renovation"
in any kind of substantial fashion.
Some of the federal highway
funds currently available to Alabama counties could be
focused on this problem, but again, a source for the 20
percent match must be identified. Additionally, many of
the deteriorating county roads are simply not eligible
for federal funding under the current procedure. This
means that any program that focused solely on federal
funds would neglect a portion of the rural road system
that is in dire need of attention.
And, as long as we are dreaming,
a third option would be to BOTH extend the bridge program
AND to begin a new road program at the same time. Our
state's rural transportation system set for decades without
a major injection of new money. The bridge program has
started our journey toward improvement, but that program
was only the first step, it cannot and should not be seen
as the conclusion of the journey.
At this point, the challenge
for counties is to put together a plan and to be ready
when the time is right. Our performance during the last
three years should have silenced the critics, now its
time to really move forward.
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