In This Issue

	Florida Looks at Advertising on License Plates
	Michigan Fights to Keep More Gas Tax Dollars at Home
	U.S. Lifts Suspension of Kentucky Contractor Lawson
	West Virginia is Ready to Increase Toll Roads
	Ariz. Bill Proposes Changes to Photo Enforcement
	Concrete Reinforcing Steel Predictions
	Schwarzenegger to Veto Fuel Tax Swap
	Lawmaker Proposes Bill to Reopen 13 Arizona Rest Areas

Florida Looks at Advertising on License Plates

Florida – Companies may soon be able to add their logo on license plates in Florida under proposed legislation that would help save drivers money while bringing need funding to the state. The Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee is likely to vote on the idea as part of a shell bill, according to the committee chairman, Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richie.

Fasano suggested the idea a few weeks ago, which would allow the state to lower drivers license fees – which went up last year – to about $6 . “It would reduce the cost of someone’s auto tag significantly,” said Fasano. The Senate committee is trying to balance the state transportation budget without taking from the Transportation Trust Fund. Meanwhile the House is hoping to siphon some of the trust fund money for other needs.

This is the kind of creative thought that must prevail if we are going to solve our transportation funding problems. The purists will be aghast at this proposal. I suggest the purists look at the adopt-a-highway signs and realize that we got over being pure in the highway right of way a long time ago. We did a study for the National Academies years ago on “Commercial Use of Highway Rights of Way.” During the study, I became acquainted with many very interesting ideas. I also became a magnet for ideas and proposals that would scare even the most progressive among us. Ultimately, I found that the right of way is an untapped source of revenue and this license plate proposal is just another dimension of that opportunity. TW

Michigan Fights to Keep More Gas Tax Dollars at Home

Michigan - Angered by a report that estimates Michigan taxpayers have funded $1.7 billion in road projects in other states, a local senator is saying he plans to get the state payback. State Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, said he will soon be introducing a controversial measure for Michigan to keep federal gas tax revenue and only pay the feds a penny for every dollar collected.

The report by the Tax Foundation calls Michigan a "donor" state, meaning it has always sent more federal gas tax dollars to Washington than it was given back in federal highway funding. The foundation said that over the past 50 years, Michigan has received about 92 cents for every dollar it was given. But during that same time period (1956-2005), Alaska was given $6.66 on every dollar, Washington, D.C. $4.11 and Hawaii $3.16.

Kuipers's planned legislation would require local Michigan agencies that collect federal gas tax to submit the funds to the state instead of the federal government. It has not been determined whether the federal government could prosecute over the plan. "They might," Kuipers said. "There are some unanswered questions here. If we don't come up with an alternative approach, we are going to be cooked. I want to raise awareness at the federal level. The way the program is set up is not right. States are crumbling under these federal programs."

Keith Ledbetter, director of legislative affairs for the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, said Kuipers legislation is not viable, saying, "There is no legitimacy in law to do that. It's not his money to keep." Ledbetter said a proposed bill to increase the gas tax by four cents in 2010 and four cents in 2013 would help raise the $84 million the state needs to qualify for $475 million in federal aid.

While Kuiper’s approach may be fruitless in terms of its impact on federal funding, this message is going to get louder and louder as the delays in reauthorization get longer and longer. Strapped for cash to pay for critical infrastructure projects, donor states are going to become more and more militant. TW

U.S. Lifts Suspension of Kentucky Contractor Lawson

FRANKFORT, Ky. – A Kentucky contractor has been cleared to bid on federally-funded highway projects following a suspension by the Federal Highway Administration due to a federal highway bid-rigging case. The FHWA suspended contractor Leonard Lawson, Lawson employee Brian Billings and former Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary Bill Nighbert after they were indicted in 2008 for an alleged bid-rigging scheme.

Lawson and Nighbert were acquitted on all counts at the trial in January, and federal prosecutors later dropped the case against Billings. The suspensions did not have any actual effects, however, since none of the defendants own or are officers of companies seeking highway contracts. Lawsons’s son, Steve Lawson, and others, are the owners and officers of companies Leonard Lawson formerly headed.

West Virginia is Ready to Increase Toll Roads

West Virginia - The governor of West Virginia is expected to sign a bill that will allow more toll roads in the state, following the approval of Senate and House lawmakers. Gov. Joe Manchin pushed for the approval of the bill which will give the West Virginia Parkways Authority the ability to expand the state’s toll roads, which are currently limited to the West Virginia Turnpike.

With a 95-3 House approval, SB427 will enable the state Parkways Authority to sell bonds to build new highway projects and collect tolls on the new roadways to pay off the bonds. The long-delayed upgrades to U.S. Route 35 near Ohio is expected to be the first project to benefit from the new authority.

Ariz. Bill Proposes Changes to Photo Enforcement

Arizona - Camera enforcement for red lights and speeding could see changes in Arizona under measures advancing in the state legislature. Several bills awaiting debate in the Senate would alter the state’s photo enforcement system, which has been the root of controversy throughout the state since Gov. Janet Napolitano introduced it to the state in 2008.

Critics of the enforcement tool have sought to put restrictions on the cameras or get rid of them completely. The House approved a proposal that would only allow violations by a red light camera to be given if the vehicle was photographed crossing the intersection one full second after the light had turned red. Rep. Frank Antenori, R-Vail, said the measure is needed to create uniformity throughout the state, and prevent communities from deliberately shortening yellow light lengths by requiring them to be at least three seconds. “It’s a way to generate large amounts of revenue at the expense of our constituents. These people are being cited for a microsecond change in the yellow light,” Antenori told House legislators during floor discussion.

Meanwhile, a bill awaiting Senate consideration would make changes to the speed camera enforcement system. SB1443 would prohibit enforcement cameras from being installed on roads within 600 feet of a speed limit change, and violations would only occur when vehicles traveled in excess of 11 mph of the posted speed limit. School and work zones would be exceptions to the restrictions proposed in the bill.

Even a policy or approach with good intentions and perhaps good outcomes can fail if the public views it as unfair or too oppressive. If you haven’t traveled in Arizona lately, there are cameras all over the place in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The anger at these devices is tangible. It’s the kind of anger that will eventually bring about their demise. These cameras will not exist in their current form a year from now. TW

Concrete Reinforcing Steel Predictions

The Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute represents nearly all of the reinforcing steel industry in the U.S. Reinforced concrete is a key component in all types of construction, including buildings, roads, energy facilities, roads bridges and more.

In a recent letter to Congressional leaders, the President and CEO of CRSI, Robert J. Risser, P.E., identified several trends and projects facing the reinforcing steel industry, including:

The industry has dropped from pre-recession quantity in 2007 of approximately ten million tons to six million tons of steel in 2009, a 40-percent decline. In projections for 2010, 89% of CRSI members expect to run out of backlogged orders in the next four months.

“All segments of the commercial construction market are down severely. Overall, we project 2010 tonnage to be between 5M and 5.5M tons, a 10% drop from 2009 and a nearly 50-percent drop from 2007,” Mr. Risser wrote in the letter to Congress.

Schwarzenegger to Veto Fuel Tax Swap

California - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to veto a budget bill that would swap the state’s gasoline tax with an excise tax to redirect $1.1 billion toward shrink California’s massive budget deficit. The governor’s office said that failure to reduce prices at the pumps as the reason for the veto on the bill. The measure was a revision of the governor’s original plan to consumer prices while simultaneously reducing the budget gap estimated at $20 billion for 2009 and 2010.

The bill proposed replacing the existing 6 percent sales tax on gasoline with a 17.3-cents per gallon excise tax, which would have allowed the state to move funds dedicated to local transit agencies and instead use the money to pay interest on its general obligation bonds. However, the revisions would result in fuel tax increases for some bus and rail operators, according to H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Finance Department.

“I asked you to exchange the sales tax for an excise tax on gasoline in a way that lowered costs for consumers by $1 billion and preserved general fund dollars to avoid major cuts to vital programs,” the governor said in a letter to legislative leaders Monday night. “Instead, you are sending me a bill that provides no tax relief to consumers at the pump and raises taxes on commuter rail services. I cannot sign this flawed legislation.”

Lawmaker Proposes Bill to Reopen 13 Arizona Rest Areas

Arizona - An Arizona lawmaker has proposed a bill that would reopen 13 of the 18 state-run rest areas that were closed last October to save $2.5 million annually. The measure proposed by Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson, would allow private entities to take over the rest areas, including their reopening and maintenance.

Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman Doug Nintzel said with more than $500 million in transportation budget cuts by the legislature in recent years, combined with hard winters there just isn’t sufficient funding to keep them open. It was also noted that the agency is limited by federal regulations with what it can do with rest areas.

“Patterson’s bill doesn’t give us (ADOT) anything we haven’t already tried,” Nintzel said. “We’ve already worked with the legislature to give us flexibility to explore an Adopt-a-rest-area” program, to partner with private entities outside of the highway rights-of-way and to look into private-public partnerships. To date, these ideas are not catching on, partly because of the expense. It costs approximately $300,000 a year to operate a rest area. Many of our rest areas still need expensive repairs.”

Patterson’s bill currently has 48 co-sponsors and is awaiting consideration by the full House.

Doug is right. ADOT has already tried the private route on its rest areas as have other states. In order to attract the private sector, there has to be a business model that works for them. They have to have a way to make money. Some restrictions exist regarding what can be done at rest areas. Some states can’t sell any food except under contract with their local “blind services” entity. Others find it difficult to attract a workforce to remote locations. On the other hand, if the rest area is proximate to a workforce then it is probably close enough to a town that doesn’t want people stopping for fuel or food at the rest area instead of in town. In the end, the free market will reign (not rain) on Patterson’s bill. TW