Legislation allowing highways to be built with private and public funds - and possibly charge tolls - was approved Wednesday by the state House of Delegates. The bill, which Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, called "complicated," set off a lively debate in the House. Monongalia County voters recently turned down a bond issue that would have used local funding to construct a number of roads to help alleviate heavy traffic in the Morgantown area. Delegates passed the bill (HB4476) on a 69-27 vote, sending it to the Senate.
The proposal would allow public-private deals for future construction projects. As compensation, the private partners could collect tolls or user fees - and mine coal or obtain other natural resources on the sites.
Critics said it could hurt business in such areas as the Eastern Panhandle. Delegate Robert Tabb, D-Jefferson, said residents of neighboring Virginia and Maryland would avoid West Virginia and the tolls, and that would hurt businesses in the region. "An investor is going to be allowed to take private property and then get a return on it," he said. "Our people are already burdened with rapidly increasing taxes."
"When everything's done, it's going to be public property," countered House Roads and Transportation Chairwoman Lidella Hrutkay, D-Logan. "We've put a lot of protections in this." She said any funding method would be temporary and the roads would eventually return to the public's hands.
The state Road Fund has been running short of funds in recent years, and West Virginia is one of the few states that do not have a county road system.
Delegate Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, and executive director of the Coalfields Expressway Authority, was quick to come to the defense of the legislation. He argued the state could save money by private firms making profits from the coal under the land.
Other Southern West Virginia lawmakers rallied around the bill, saying their section of the state never received interstate highways.
Browning said allowing developers to extract natural resources would make the highway cheaper and could speed its completion. "In our part of the state, it's hard to build a road without running over some coal," he said.
He questioned where else the state could get the funding with federal money running short. "We need to look for new and innovative ways of road financing, and this bill does that," he said.
Delegates rejected an amendment reducing toll costs for state residents.
