County commissioners concerned about West Virginia transportation priorities
BLUEFIELD – Changes at the West Virginia Division of Highways and Department of Transportation that the governor announced earlier this week have made local county commissioners think about how those changes could impact their constituents.
Speaking at a Bridgeport press conference streamed over social media, Gov. Patrick Morrisey stood behind a lectern bearing the sign Better Roads & Bridges as he said that they are connections for every part of life in the state, but that there are problems with this infrastructure.
'But what we have uncovered are mismanaged funds, mounting debt, and basic roads and bridges falling apart,' he said. 'That is why I'm unveiling a major course-correction for our state's transportation policies. A better, safer, and more efficient transportation system starts with fixing what we already have and making sure it lasts.'
The core condition of West Virginia's roads and bridges must be addressed, Morrisey said.
'We're here to talk about something very important for West Virginia,' he said. 'The state of our roads and bridges is critical. It affects everything we do. Our ability to connect with one another. Our ability to drive to work, what we do when we go out to restaurants, how we live, how we play. We need to have a strong infrastructure if our state is to compete.
I've talked a lot about having West Virginia compete with the other states that we touch. Certainly infrastructure is a critical part of that,' Morrisey said. 'And I don't need to tell you about the condition of the roads and bridges in West Virginia. It's not what people deserve, so we have to change that.'
The highway and bridge conditions are symptoms of much larger problems with the state highway system, he said.
'The first issue we found was with the financial management of the department of transportation and the division of highways,' Morrisey said. 'When I came into office, what I found most alarming was that the DOT seemed to be basically out of money. If you look at the Roads to Prosperity that was a 30-year bond, effectively all of the money – a little bit wasn't – all the money was effectively committed in seven years. The public didn't know that. Now I'm here to tell you that the Roads to Prosperity money, it's all gone in term that it's not available. It's effectively committed.'
Morrisey said this policy goes against what the state's federal counterparts say about how to handle federal highway funding.
'It actually got to the point where the federal government came to our administration very early in our tenure and said if West Virginia did not change the way it manages its highway system, they were going to reduce the amount of federal funds that are coming to our state,' Morrisey said. 'It's pretty significant. And that reduction in funding would seriously reduce the number of highways and bridges that we are able to fund each year.'
'Basically, the state was spending so much on some of the new highways without a clear plan for getting them done,' he said. 'A basic look at our financial numbers made it obvious that we can't even afford the highways that are on the books. So we're going to solve that problem and we're going to solve a few others.'
Morrisey said to start fixing problems and better manage bridges and roads, he has directed the DOT to immediately implement the following measures including refocusing resources on long-overdue maintenance; reduce administrative overhead and invest those savings into the state's roads and bridges; protect core maintenance funding warning that failure to do so would jeopardize long-term stability.
'I appreciate Gov. Morrisey's leadership and his strong support for transportation and infrastructure in West Virginia,' Todd Rumbaugh, Secretary of Transportation said later in a press release. 'Our focus will remain on preserving our existing system, maintaining the roads and bridges that West Virginians count on every day, and ensuring the safety of the traveling public and the strength of our workforce.'
Members of the Mercer County Commission expressed concerns about the changes to the DOT after hearing the governor's announcement. One concern was the possible halting of a highway project going through southern West Virginia.
'Yea, you know, specifically the King Coal Highway,' said County Commission President Bill Archer said after the commission's meeting Tuesday. 'That's something that would be really an opening not only for the people in Mercer County but also for the people in McDowell County and Wyoming County, the places that it touches.'
Halting the highway project could impact efforts to extend the Mercer County Airport's runway, Archer said. Fill dirt from the highway's construction was going towards that project.
'For our perspective, we're trying to work with a contractor now to extend our runway at the Mercer County Airport, which would enable us to have jet traffic in there again which would increase the potential for bringing in tourists by that. We have a good plan in place and we've been working with contractors trying to work out the details, the dirt that they're moving, to be fill dirt for the extension project,' Archer said. 'We're working in conjunction with the City of Princeton as well as the City of Bluefield and developers in that area in order to be able to do that.'
Stopping construction would also impact other counties.
'McDowell County has been through a tremendous challenge and if we don't complete that highway, it could be a tremendous challenge for people in the future,' Archer said.
Commissioner Brian Blankenship he was thinking about how counties would be expected to participate in road projects.
'Definitely,' Blankenship said. 'There were no details that were given in that public announcement (Tuesday). On the surface it looked like, until we hear more from his department of administration, that somewhere down the road they would like to see counties and the municipalities start taking care of the road systems. Well, as far as counties, that's something we haven't had to do since back in the 1920s and 1930s.'
'So naturally, that's something that is not budgeted for,' Blankenship said. 'I mean, we're running a tight ship now and we've had a moratorium now on funding requests for several months and then all of sudden we're to be expecting or possibly the potential of taking care of our local state roads? We need a lot more details. We hope that cooler heads will prevail and come up with some kind of solution to where that burden is not being placed on the counties or the cities because we don't have the monies budgeted for those kind of things.'
Counties need more avenues for raising revenue, Blankenship said.
'A lot of our counties of course we've been asking the Legislature for giving us the ability, putting it on the ballot and letting the people decide, it would be nice to do these extra projects and thing,' he said.
One concern is how counties will pay if they are expected to help fund local infrastructure projects.
'Money is going to be the issue. Where does the money come from?' Blankenship asked. 'If the Legislature would ever give the counties the ability to earn additional revenue, if those extra burdens are going to be placed on us as far as taking care of the roads and things like that, we need extra revenue sources. That's just the cut and dry of it. '
The primary revenue source that most counties have now are property taxes.
'That's it. They (Legislature) have strangled most of our counties in the entire state in not giving anyone the ability to raise additional revenue when you have big projects,' Blankenship said. 'We would love to do so many more water and sewer projects for our communities because from what I understand when I come onto the county seat Jan. 1, you know, Mercer County on 60, low 60 some percent developed for water and sewer. Well, you have to match a lot of these grants and things with 20%. Where does that money come from? We just don't have the money tree out back to where we can fund these things we would just love to do for our populace.'
'If indeed the governor is really looking at pushing some of those burdens on top of strained budgets, we have to have the flexibility to earn additional revenues to offset that,' Blankenship said. 'That's just the way it is.'
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
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