MARTINSBURG — Public-private partnerships could be one way to finance some of the many roadway upgrades needed throughout West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, officials said Tuesday.
“One of the things the governor has said is that we have a variety of road needs,” said Lara Ramsburg, spokeswoman for Gov. Joe Manchin. “He is working with the Legislature on what other options we may have to speed up that process. One of the things that has been looked at is; is there a way to do a public-private partnership?”
The list of roadway improvements needed on West Virginia’s nearly 36,000 miles of roadway is lengthy, and the money available to complete them is limited, officials with the Department of Transportation reported earlier.
The agency projected $587 million worth of revenues in a report released last year. Of that, nearly $341 million was expected to go toward administrative costs, debt repayment, and routine roadway maintenance, leaving little remaining for projects like W.Va. 9.
In 2007, improvements to a stretch of this roadway from Martinsburg to Charles Town were expected to cost the agency nearly $133 million, according to the agency’s six-year plan.
Public-private partnerships, like tolls, could enable the state to complete the road or others faster than it is currently able to do, Ramsburg said.
Such fees would only be implemented if the affected communities agreed to take part in such a program, Ramsburg said. Communities would have to examine if it was worth it to them to pay the fees and get a project done faster than what is currently possible, she said. Such partnerships would not, however, be mandated by the state.
Ramsburg said Manchin is working with legislators on the issue. A bill is in the works but has not yet been introduced, she said.
Joe Deneault, chairman of West Virginians for Better Transportation, said his group does not have a position on public-private funding partnerships, or any other specific finance mechanism, but said it believes discussions need to be held on how the state can finance its many roadway needs.
“We don’t really take a position on any particular solution. What we think is, that it’s vital for us to have a discussion and debate about all sorts of options that exist. ... In some cases that might be tolls. There’s really not going to be a silver bullet that’s out there that’s the solution to all the funding problems that are out there in West Virginia,” Deneault said.
But Delegate John Overington, R-Berkeley, said he thinks other options need to be considered before communities decide to opt into such partnerships.
At present, he said, West Virginia pays workers prevailing wage rates instead of the market rate for work done on highway projects. These rates, he said, are higher than what workers would be getting paid at other jobs.
“With our state-mandated prevailing wage rate, we are getting 70 cents on our tax dollars,” Overington said.
Before tolls are imposed, Overington said he would like to see West Virginia eliminate the prevailing wage rate. Already, the state’s drivers pay a higher gas tax than their neighbors, he said. The state also imposes various automobile-related fees.
Overington said he would be hesitant to get on board with the idea because if tolls were implemented there could be a temptation to divert Department of Transportation dollars to other areas where the fees were not in place.
“At this point, I would be hesitant to support something like that,” Overington said.
Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, did not return calls for comment.
