Rather than offer specific recommendations for directing new cash to Louisiana’s roadways, a legislatively created task force is forwarding all the ideas it heard.
The Associated Press reports the Transportation Funding Task Force, which ends in March, isn’t prioritizing proposals it submits to lawmakers, instead letting them sift through concepts to see which generate the most interest.
Among ideas included in the report approved by the task force today: replace the state gas tax with a sales tax on all fuels; direct more money in the construction budget to road work; and steer to highways dollars that otherwise pour into the state’s “rainy day” fund.
Louisiana has a $12 billion backlog of road and bridge work. Like many other states, Louisiana is struggling with a stagnant gasoline tax that hasn’t kept pace with construction inflation and a disinterest in raising new taxes to fill the gaps in road work.
Rep. Karen St. Germain, task force chair, says she hopes lawmakers will consider some ideas in the regular session that begins in April. The eight-member task force, created by the Legislature during last year’s session, met for the first time in September.
