Highway funding report issued

UPDATE:

The Arkansas Blue Ribbon Committee on Highway Finance has issued its final report on recommended ways to fund the state's highway improvements and maintenance.

As expected, the 48-page report included calls for a shifting auto-related sales tax to highway funds for 10 years, indexing the motor fuel tax to the highway construction cost index, putting to a vote a decade-long, half-cent general sales tax and adding a new excise tax on motor fuels.

The report notes that funding problems have arisen in large part because the highway system is financed by consumption-based taxes amid a national goal to reduce consumption. Significant inflation has also occurred in the construction industry.

"Failure to address these issues will mean further declines in road conditions and safety for our motorists and will keep Arkansas at a competitive disadvantage in the regional and national marketplace," State Sen. John Paul Capps, the board chair, wrote in the introduction.

He later added that action is needed in spite of some calls not to add taxes in a down economy.

"Although infrastructure investments are expensive, it is even more expensive for the nation if we skimp on infrastructure," Capps wrote. "There are real costs associated with not investing in infrastructure, including increased congestion and foregone productivity and jobs.

"I believe the recommendations in this report, if enacted, will provide a bold step forward in addressing the systemic flaws and sustainability issues that exist today in funding Arkansas’s roads."

EARLIER:

A report detailing a host of potential funding mechanisms for maintaining Arkansas' highways is expected to be released today.

The Arkansas Blue Ribbon Committee on Highway Finance set a Dec. 1 deadline for its final recommendations, which members say includes a decade-long, half-percent sales tax increase, a redirected auto-related sales tax and a new excise tax on the wholesale gas price.

Officials said Wednesday morning that the report is still undergoing final revisions and should be available before the end of the day.

The committee was tasked with finding ways to fund the state's highway improvements amid concerns over coming shortfalls. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has said it will have only $4.1 billion for construction in the next 10 years despite identified needs totaling more than $19 billion.

Committee Chair John Paul Capps has said all of the group's recommendations need to be passed to meet the state's minimum highway needs.

This story was originally posted at 8:30 a.m.

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