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President's Message
- Volume 53, Number 6 - 2009
Do you want better roads?
Then, the Association as a full membership must be prepared to work for them.
Every year at this time the new ACCA president offers some words
of encouragement regarding the year’s legislative session and the need for all county officials to be involved in the Association’s efforts to promote and protect county government.
With the session already underway, we trust you’ve adjusted your schedule to emphasize your legislative involvement to keep yourself informed regarding events in Montgomery.
You can review our entire legislative program, priority legislation and the many county officials and employees throughout the state who helped put it together. I would like to express my appreciation to those who worked on development of the program and for setting our
priorities for this election-year session.
Certainly we expect this session to be challenging for county government. It is our role to protect our ability to provide services to those who depend on us, as well as to make changes in the law that will allow us to respond in a more positive way. This is always difficult for so many reasons, and this year will be no different.
I am especially excited about this year’s effort to generate revenue for county road and bridge projects. The Association has struggled for half a decade to develop a new program and to secure statewide support for additional funding to maintain our aging road and bridge system.
A good start was the “Amendment 1” program that replaced $250 million worth of county bridges over five years that began in 2000. That program, as successful as it was, really only put a dent in the major backlog on our state’s rural transportation system.
Our challenge now is to build on that record of efficiency and productivity and to secure support for another initiative that will allow us to address the crisis that exists with our transportation system.
If we are to succeed this year, it will be because we have not sat around and waited for another opportunity, but have been working diligently since the bridge replacement program concluded in 2005.
Again, I would like to commend the engineers and commissioners who worked on our “Road-and-Bridge Tour” two years ago.
This statewide effort to physically “show” legislators the condition of our road system helped raise the awareness of the problems with rural roads. Funding for road and bridge projects must always be at the forefront of our discussions with state and federal leaders if we hope to be successful in securing additional revenue.
As an elected official, I am acutely aware of how difficult it would be to secure the legislative support for a statewide increase in gasoline taxes. But, without additional revenue, most of our efforts to improve safety will have little impact. During the last several years, more than a third of the fatal automobile accidents in our state have taken place on county roads.
There has been no increase in revenue since 1992, and the condition of our roads and bridges are evidence of that inattention. Again, our roads will only worsen unless something changes. Period.
The centerpiece of this year’s legislative effort is a “Pay-As-You-Go” road-funding program that would allow county commissions to call for a local referendum on increasing gasoline and diesel fuel taxes. If approved by the local voters, the revenue raised would be retained in that county and used to address road and bridge needs in that county.
The actual projects to be funded with the revenue would be identified in the resolution calling for the referendum. The commission would also be prohibited from expending any of the resulting revenue on salaries, equipment or other non-construction items.
The legislation has been carefully drawn to ensure the revenue goes directly to road and bridge projects. If voters approve the referendum, they will know exactly where the money will be spent – BEFORE THEY VOTE. And, the commission would be prohibited from varying from the published list.
We have tried to emphasize the principles of accountability and transparency. This program will give local citizens and officials an opportunity to address local problems and to know where the local revenue will be spent even before the money is collected.
The program also recognizes that legislators are not likely to vote in favor of an increase in gasoline tax rates this year, or perhaps, anytime in the near future.
Should the legislation gain approval, counties will begin work on a project list and in securing community support for enacting a local tax that would automatically be repealed in five years, unless another referendum was held to extend the levy.
The commission would establish a list of projects, in priority order, and would follow that list in expending the revenue generated by the tax.
Certainly securing support for this project from a majority of the voters will be a challenge in many areas. But, the conditions of our county roads and bridges cry out for innovative ideas. We cannot simply sit by and do nothing because it will be difficult. We have a responsibility to seek out and promote solutions.
At a time when seeking legislative support for a tax increase is something akin to wasting one’s time, perhaps the best approach is to put the question in the voters’ hands.
“Do you want better roads?” If so, we’ve got a plan. And, as county officials dedicated to being actively involved in the improvement of our communities, we’ve got the next three months to get it passed.
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