Beebe suggests he will seek highway bond vote in 2010
Posted on Friday, March 28, 2008
Gov. Mike Beebe signaled Wednesday a likely bid to seek voter approval for highway bonds in 2010.
Beebe refused to guarantee an election in two years but said it would “probably” happen then, adding that he wanted “a major program to do something, rather than just dribbling it out over some period of time.”
Last March, the Legislature approved a measure to give the state authority to issue $ 575 million in bonds for interstate highway improvements.
An earlier failed effort by former Gov. Mike Huckabee would have issued bonds up to $ 575 million in perpetuity. That proposal was rejected by voters in a December 2005 special election after the Arkansas Trucking Association and other groups opposed it.
Beebe said that effort failed because “the people didn’t want to give an ongoing $ 575 million to the Highway Department without it going before the people.”
It’s too early to decide whether to put the bonds on the general election ballot or schedule a special election, he said.
Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, who sponsored the legislation authorizing the bond issue vote, said interstate highways need the money to be approved by 2010.
“It’s imperative that we continue to have a fund... that will keep the interstate highway system in an excellent state of repair. That keeps us from taking funds out of our secondary road system,” Glover said.
In 1999, a $ 575 million bond issue was structured so that the first $ 250 million will be paid off in 2010. Beebe said he wants to continue on that success.
“You saw what kind of improvements we had with the interstates with that program,” he said.
Randy Ort, spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said it was too early to start “enumerating priorities,” but did say Interstate 530 between Little Rock and Pine Bluff is “obviously in bad shape.”
Stretches of Interstate 40 near Russellville and the White River also need work as does Interstate 30 near Malvern and Interstate 540 near Fort Smith, he said.
Pledging some revenue from his proposed severance tax increase on natural gas, which will be before the Legislature in a special session starting Monday, is a future option, Beebe said.
Beebe’s severance tax proposal is expected to raise $ 57 million next year, rising to possibly $ 100 million within three years.
Pledging some severance tax revenue might work, but it would depend on the price of natural gas, he said. But if revenue matches projections, he “might well” support it, Beebe said.
“It would take some kind of track record to satisfy the bond [market ]. I wouldn’t take it off the table,” he said.
He made his comments before the Arkansas Policy Foundation, a think tank that was an early advocate for eliminating the state’s sales tax on groceries.
Beebe said he would seek further reductions in the grocery tax once the state meets its essential needs, including the highest priority: education.
“It’s our No. 2 priority,” Beebe said of grocery-tax reduction.
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