The high cost of infrastructure

Louisiana drivers pay for bad roads and bridges, whether they're fixed or not.

If you're not paying to repair or replace them, you're paying other costs, including higher insurance premiums, vehicle maintenance costs and time and fuel burned sitting in traffic.

That's an argument Reldon Owens makes for ramping up investment in the state's crumbling infrastructure. He hopes it's a compelling enough one to convince legislators and the people who vote for them to get behind new revenue-raising measures.

"Everybody benefits from infrastructure. I don't care if you live in Landmark or off Lower Third," Owens said, referencing two Alexandria neighborhoods on different ends of the economic scale. "It's not a partisan issue. It moves people, goods and services from point A to point B in a safe, timely and efficient manner."

Owens is one of 18 members on the Task Force on Transportation Infrastructure Investment, and the only one from Central Louisiana. The task force was appointed by Gov. John Bel Edwards to explore ways to fund the state's huge backlog of infrastructure needs and fund "megaprojects" from the state's transportation plan.

The group will make its recommendations in January. It faces a difficult task.

The state's backlog of highway and bridge maintenance projects has grown to more than $12 billion. Billions more could easily be spent on new projects to ease traffic congestion and boost capacity.

After several years of scraping just to pass a budget, it's money the state does not have. Addressing the issue means raising more money, not an easy sell in Louisiana's current fiscal climate.

Failure to act, many stakeholders say, will cause the state to lose out on economic expansion.

"I am encouraged that this administration has chosen to focus on transportation," said Deborah Randolph, president of the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce. "I think the time is right to look at things like the way the funding flows and optimizing the way we can fund projects in the future."

"Nobody wants more taxes or new taxes," Owens said. "But if it's dedicated and protected, meaning no one can go in and use it for something else, I think you can get people behind it. Because it's an investment in our future."

Where could the money come from?

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development let $555 million worth of projects in Fiscal Year 2015-16. That was the lowest number since 2002-03.

That number is expected to rise to about $800 million this year, thanks in part to increased Capital Outlay funds going toward transportation and discontinuing a practice where Transportation Trust Fund dollars were used to fund part of the State Police budget.

Owens would like to see that yearly number be at $1 billion or more, as it was from 2005-10 (spending in some of those years was boosted by federal stimulus and disaster recovery funds).

Where could the additional money come from? The simplest answer is at the gas pump.

Louisiana drivers pay one of the lowest gas prices in the country, about 11 cents lower than the national average.

The 16-cent-per-gallon state tax has remained unchanged since 1984 (voters did approve an additional 4-cent tax in 1989 to fund specific projects under the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development program). With inflation, the buying power of that 16 cents has been reduced to as little as 7 cents per gallon.

The task force is expected to seriously consider recommending an increase to the gas tax,and indexing it to inflation.

Other revenue-raising measures that have been proposed to address infrastructure issues in the past include increasing registration fees, finding a way to tax vehicles that run on fuel other than gasoline (such as electricity and natural gas) and adding tolls.

An intriguing possibility is giving parishes and municipalities (even regions, if multiple parishes want to cooperate) the option of passing their own taxes to fund local projects.

"Our thought is that would be another gas tax," said Matt Johns, executive director of the Rapides Area Planning Commission. "But (DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson) told us 'You can do a sales tax; you can do a TIF district; you can do different things.' If we ever go that route, I agree with him that the Lafayette model works best."

That model refers to Lafayette Parish's 1-cent sales tax to pay for a new commercial terminal at Lafayette Regional Airport. It was pitched as "one penny, one project, one year," but the tax yielded the expected revenue and was discontinued after eight months.

"People are skeptical of paying more taxes; I get that," Johns said. "But if you can show them exactly what you would do with the money, I think you have a better chance of convincing people."

 What it could mean for Central Louisiana

Central Louisiana has just one "megaproject" designated as high priority in the state's transportation plan: a leg of the Central Louisiana Beltway.

The proposed beltway was conceived as a transportation and utility corridor around the Alexandria/Pineville area, linking major corridors going in and out of the area and spurring residential, commercial and industrial growth. It is in the early planning stages, with mapping of existing roads and utility infrastructure to determine the optimal route.

The high priority portion of the beltway is the southern loop, connecting Highway 28 East and West.

"What your doing is connecting those outlying areas," Owens said. "It sets your path for growth."

The other long term project local stakeholders bring up most often is the proposed Interstate 14, of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway. The project would expand roads into a highway stretching from West Texas to Georgia.

Stakeholders are hoping to get the highway's route through Louisiana, including Highway 28 West and East, Congressionally designated soon, so when funds become available for the project Louisiana can apply for them.

The project is designed to link ports and military installations across the South, but it could also serve as an additional disaster evacuation route.

"When you look at (Interstate 10), you have flooding, you have storms," Randolph said. "If you had another east-west corridor, you could divert traffic there when needed."

Other priority projects in this area that stakeholders mention include four-laning Highway 28 East from Pineville to its intersection with U.S. Highway 84 (which could be accomplished through the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway project), traffic issues on the Cottingham Expressway and U.S. Highway 165 and frontage road intersections on MacArthur Drive.

The task force is charged with exploring "multimodal" infrastructure, so river shipping can also be considered. Local stakeholders have advocated to maintain operation and maintenance funds for the Red River — having those funds appropriated has been a yearly fight — and to deepen the river's channel from nine to 12 feet, which they believe will increase activity at the Central Louisiana Regional Port.