The two transportation-related ballot measures Louisiana’s voters will decide Saturday won’t fix all the state’s road repair projects. As Governing reports, they won’t even come close. But transportation advocates in the state it’s a move in the right direction.
“Every step that we can take is one step better,” says state Sen. Robert Adley, a Republican from Benton who sponsored one of the measures. “You’re not going to go out there and solve an $11 billion problem in one bill. It’s going to take time.”
Lawmakers began focusing on shoring up transportation funding without raising taxes this spring. They outlined a plan to pay for traffic police without relying on transportation money. And they referred two proposals to voters in the form of constitutional amendments, of which there are a total of four on Saturday’s ballot.
The first proposed amendment would cap the state’s rainy day fund, which is bankrolled by taxes on oil and natural gas producers, at $500 million and direct any extra money from those fees toward improving the state’s infrastructure. The second would give the state treasurer to option of investing state money in an infrastructure bank to help cities and parishes finance new projects.
Adley, the chief proponent of changes to the rainy day fund, says $500 million in reserves should be enough to help the state survive sudden drops in oil tax revenue. Louisiana brings in about $8 billion in general funds every year. Anything beyond $500 million, Adley says, should be returned to taxpayers or spent on improving the state’s infrastructure. He notes that Texas voters passed a similar proposal last year.
“This first year, [the transportation fund] should receive $17 million right off the top. That’s helpful. It’s not the solution, but it is helpful,” Adley says.
Legislative analysts, though, have predicted that the new fund would not bring in much money in its first few years. In the three years after the initial $17 million payment, the transportation fund would probably only bring in between $4.4 million and $9.3 million a year. Adley hopes those numbers will improve when the price of oil increases again, which means oil companies would produce more oil in Louisiana and pay more taxes on it.
The second transportation question on the ballot would build an infrastructure bank in Louisiana, after several unsuccessful attempts to do so. The legislature created the infrastructure bank in its last session, but this ballot measure would authorize the state treasurer to use state money to fund it. With an infrastructure bank, localities could apply for loans from the state to build infrastructure projects.
Read the full story by Governing. And check out a guide to all four proposed constitutional amendments on Saturday’s ballot by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.
