Keep WV Moving -

CHARLESTON — Fewer sales and more fuel efficient vehicles, combined with a rapidly deteriorating highway system and a trend that finds teenagers disinclined to get a license, add up to one thing — big trouble for road upkeep in West Virginia. And unless the Legislature finds a way of pumping new cash into the road fund, motorists are going to wind up bearing the costs via repairs prompted by shoddy highways.

That was the grim message delivered to lawmakers Wednesday by Dr. Tom Witt, representing the College of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University. “This is not a pretty picture,” Witt said, pointing to one graph in remarks to the Joint Committee on Finance.

One idea he advanced called for enlisting help from counties, noting West Virginia is one of but four states that assume total responsibility for road upkeep and construction — a move taken in the Great Depression. Since then, fortunes have reversed dramatically, leaving the state in dire straits to maintain the roads.

In the cash-for-clunkers program this year, the average mile-per-gallon rate swapped was 15.8 while the new vehicles purchased had a 24.9 efficiency. Which means, as Witt outlined, a new vehicle driven 12,000 miles a year would bring in nearly $90 less in motor fuel excise taxes. In West Virginia, that translates into a $301,200 sacrifice. “You can continue to see this kind of erosion over time,” the WVU official said.

Witt said one option is to raise the existing fuel excise tax — now 32.2 cents and ranked 12th in the country. A 1.6 cent increase would be needed to meet the fiscal 2010 budget of $380 million, he said. Another idea is to change the reporting date for collections from the end of the month to the 20th. And, he said, the state could also hike the whole tax rate from 5 to 6 percent. Inflation has trimmed the purchasing power of sales tax revenues almost 45 percent.

Witt also said the Legislature might consider a surcharge of 0.5 to 1 percent on vehicles capable of a pre-determined level of fuel efficiency since they now are contributing less to the upkeep of roads they are helping deteriorate. That idea didn’t sit well with one panelist, however.

“You have to appreciate the irony in the presentation that folks are buying the fuel efficient vehicles, now we’re looking at trying to think of a way to tax those so that we’ll have money going into the road fund,” Delegate Virginia Mahan, D-Summers, said.

“If you’re trying to save on your mileage, you’re actually kind of hurting the road fund. Obviously, we’ve got a dilemma before us. And this is not going to get any better any time soon.”

Mahan doubted any of the options would be favored by lawmakers. “I don’t think anybody is going to find any of this very appealing,” she said.

Mahan predicted the Legislature would wind up following a recent tack, when it dipped into the general revenue account for $40 million.

Witt suggested lawmakers might want to consider raising the registration fee. Back in 1970, that provided 30 percent of the road fund, but now has shrunk to a mere 14 percent. West Virginia imposes a $30 fee, and all surrounding states charge more, except for the $21 fee in Kentucky. The highest of $64 is in force in Maryland. Witt also said lawmakers could look at private toll roads and bridges to leverage money.

A national trend likewise is saddled with a potential huge negative on road funds — a new generation disinclined to get a driver’s license because they can’t afford a vehicle.

“Any demographic changes like that are going to affect future travel,” Witt said. “It’s an expensive proposition now to have a car, and because of that, a lot of families are beginning to think traditionally what we’ve had.”

Whatever magic the Legislature can work needs to be done soon, he suggested.

Witt told of a legislator’s wife who paid a $900 repair bill after a pothole damaged the strut on her vehicle. As roads keep crumbling, he said, the motoring public is going to shoulder the costs of neglect.

“If the roads aren’t properly maintained, people are beginning to see they’re going to incur a lot of the costs themselves,” he said afterward. “That’s the cost of deferred maintenance.”

Rather than pave a road, things could worsen to the pint the entire bed has to be rebuilt, Witt said. “It’s just a ticking time bomb in terms of the costs of deferred maintenance.”