Money top concern in road swap idea (New Orleans City Business)
Transportation official wants local governments to take over 5,000 miles of state highways
Louisiana’s 16,687 miles of state-owned roads are a “giant yoke hung around the neck of the state DOT that is weighing us down,” says Eric Kalivoda, assistant secretary for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
So he’d like the state to transfer 5,000 of those miles to parish ownership.
But the issue of road ownership is “terribly fraught with political landmines,” said Jim Amdal, director of the Maritime and Intermodal Transportation Center at the University of New Orleans.
Those landmines include exactly who’s responsible for what.
Orleans Parish Intergovernmental Relations estimates the parish spends $500,000 annually on lighting, grass cutting and other work it considers the state’s responsibility.
“We already are not getting paid to do a lot of services (for the state),” said New Orleans Public Works Director Robert Mendoza.
That amount was much higher when the city also cleaned catch basins, said Intergovernmental Relations representative Julie Schwam Harris. But the city recently began forwarding complaints about catch basins directly to the state district office in Bridge City.
Mike Stack, the Bridge City administrator, believes most of the $500,000 is for lighting, which he said is a local responsibility mandated by state statute. Stack could not confirm whether the city cleaned its own catch basins.
Kalivoda said federal statistics show Louisiana has the 10th highest percentage of state-owned roads in the nation. He illustrated his point before industry executives and interest groups at the Louisiana Freight Transportation Summit earlier this month.
“We have state highways that go out into the middle of sugar cane fields, and they stop,” Kalivoda said. “We have duck hunting camp roads.”
But Kalivoda also stressed fairness. He wants to compensate parishes by pumping up the Parish Transportation Fund, which divvies out state money to parishes for roads and public transit.
The fund’s balance is at $46 million. Kalivoda’s proposal would deposit money into the fund that typically goes toward routine maintenance on the roadways in question. He speculates that could add about $60 million per year.
The state would spend part of its capital savings on congestion relief, bridge maintenance and road safety. In all, the state would save $25 million for other transportation needs, he said.
Kalivoda is concerned because expected proceeds from the vehicle sales tax reverted back to the strapped general fund. In 2008, the Legislature dedicated part of the tax to transportation through a seven-year phase-in. The transportation department responded with a capital investment program, including upgrades to state highways.
But the windfall came with a caveat: If state revenues fell to a certain point, the tax would revert back to the general fund. And that’s exactly what happened this year, after only one installment, leaving the department with an expensive plan and no funding.
“The revenue estimating committee met and pulled the trigger,” Kalivoda said.
To make up for the loss, Kalivoda said his department will seek $533 million in state bond money over the next three years, when he expects the vehicle sales tax to be back under his department’s control.
But Kalivoda may be in for a serious fight for the relatively meager amount he hopes to save by transferring roads. Mendoza said he agrees with Kalivoda’s overall point but predicted an unkind reception for Kalivoda’s idea because other public works directors statewide share the perception — justified or not — that parishes already are covering what the state cannot handle.
“You won’t be able to sell the change without addressing the other imbalances that have existed for years,” Mendoza said.
And the Parish Transportation Fund may not be up to the task. The little-noticed fund could receive closer scrutiny if it is politicized as a bargaining chip. The formulas by which it is distributed, for example, could be a point of contention, Mendoza said. They are based on population, roadway miles and transit riders.
“(Parishes) have just accepted it as a revenue stream,” Mendoza said. “I think when people really think about that formula, there will be a lot of jockeying.”
New Orleans received almost $4.4 million last year from the Parish Transportation Fund, including $2.5 million for roads, about 10 percent of which are state owned, Mendoza said.
Kalivoda is only now introducing outlines of a future plan, and detailed cost projections cannot occur until roads are selected.
In the end, Mendoza predicted parishes will conduct a simple analysis when they consider an increased Parish Transportation Fund as compensation for more roads.
“How is what you’re adding going to address what you’re adding to my budget?” Mendoza asked.•
by Ben Myers
