The County Line
- Volume 53, Number 1 - 2009
Seventeen years...
Much can happen in 17 years. Each year has brought new ideas to fund Alabama's county road and bridge program, but each year little has been done to achieve our goals.
It’s been almost 17 years. The invitations for Perry’s high school graduation reminded me.
When my son was but a few months old, I used this space to write about a proposed highway funding program and how the late nights of lobbying had taken me away from the crib occupied by my first born.
Today a copy of the story hangs in his room, amid the sports and music mementos, pictures of his girlfriend, and the usual teenage clutter.
We’ve talked about the story over the years. He’s always blushed when we’ve read the part of the column that says I came home from the Alabama State House, held him in my arms, explained to him the passage of a new gasoline tax program that would help provide him safe roads and bridges and then sang to him, Your Song, by Sir Elton John as he fell asleep.
I read the story again the other night looking at his graduation invitation. Doesn’t seem like it’s been almost 17 years – but it has.
This time next year he’ll be nearing the end of his first year of college. Perhaps Kathy, Sydney and I will have adjusted to the silence coming from his room. But, I doubt it.
That story from 17 years ago outlined the passage of a funding program for Alabama’s roads and bridges. The lion’s share of the money went to the state, with counties getting about 20 percent for the aging rural road system.
In the past 17 years there have been many changes in Perry’s life. But in the years since the passage of that road program, there’s been little done to generate enough money to enhance the overall condition of Alabama’s rural transportation system. Truth be known, the only interjection of new money for the county road system since the early 1990s has been the much-acclaimed county bridge replacement bond issue approved by voters in 2000.
Honestly, that program was the brainchild of this Association and was passed and implemented against the objections of many who didn’t believe county bridges should be given any priority at all.
Oh, we’ve tried a host of different approaches to generate revenue to fund improvements to county roads and bridges – bills to create other bond issues, bills to increase the gasoline and/or diesel fuel tax, bills to shift money around from one source to another, bills to give counties the authority to levy local sales taxes. Each one failed.
Then, we had the bright idea to pass a bill establishing the Rural Road Program to address the needs at the county level. The bill establishing the program was passed, but it has never been funded.
In the ensuing years, federal highway funds for the State of Alabama have increased substantially. However, the allocation to counties has not changed since 1995.
This year, more than a half-billion in federal “stimulus” revenue was sent to the State of Alabama for its road and bridges, and only about $17 million of the funding went on the roads and bridges maintained by the county commissions.
Each year we’ve kicked around a new approach to make improvements; each year Perry has grown a little closer to being a man; and each year nothing has been done to emphasize Alabama’s rural roads.
As the 2009 Regular Session of the Legislature reaches an end, this year’s version, which really doesn’t adequately emphasize county roads and bridges, also seems destined to fail. This one would shift a total of $1 billion of revenue from the Alabama Trust Fund to road and bridge construction – with 75 percent of the money going to make improvements on state roads and only 22.5 percent reaching its way to the county-maintained roads.
Although one-third of the road fatalities occurred on county roads last year, even this newest proposal focused most of its muscle on the state-maintained road system. Why has so little been done for county roads in the last 17 years? There are a myriad of reasons, and pointing fingers will do little good.
As we discussed at the annual conference of the Association of County Engineers of Alabama, we can be certain that no significant program will be enacted until county officials and employees muster their collective influence and demand our road system be given the priority it deserves.
One can assume the motoring public doesn’t fully understand the crisis that exists on the county level.
Most counties do not have a local gasoline or diesel fuel tax, leaving the county road departments to function almost exclusively on the county share of the state gasoline tax. Because the tax is based on gallons sold, not the price of the product, the revenue from the tax has been outpaced by inflation to the tune of about 40 percent since Perry was a baby.
All the while, counties have tried to adequately pay their workforce, repair and rehabilitate a road and bridge system pushed to breaking point, and keep up with the economic development and construction activity in the rural areas – all on a funding source that has been declining. Simply put, this is a blueprint for disaster.
We cannot expect the taxpayers of Alabama to support additional funding without being given a plan for the most efficient use of the revenue. That is our challenge, to forge a plan that can be embraced by the people of Alabama. The plan must emphasize safety, enhance the
economic development of our state, and ensure we reduce the deaths that occur in rural Alabama.
The 2010 elections are around the corner. It will be our responsibility to make sure this issue is discussed by all candidates across the state. Then after the election, it will be up to us to turn those discussions into action in Montgomery.
In the coming months, we must develop a plan and communicate it to the people who so depend on the transportation system at the county level. If we aren’t ready, we’ll fail again.
But, before that work begins, we have to attend graduation, and take the opportunity to sing Your Song one last time before he goes off to college.
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