DALLAS -- Maine Gov. Paul LePage said the state will embark on a $2 billion, three-year program of transportation projects to upgrade the state's infrastructure because of uncertain and sluggish federal highway funding.
"While we are getting a lot of flat funding from Washington, much of our infrastructure requirements are going to fall on the back of our people," LePage said Monday at a news conference in the state capital of Augusta.
The capital program is an investment in Maine's infrastructure that will create construction jobs and make businesses more competitive, he said.
"It's imperative if we're going to move Maine from poverty to prosperity that we have good infrastructure," LePage said.
The infrastructure program assumes that Maine's federal transportation funding will stay at about the $181 million in reimbursements for state projects that the state received in fiscal 2014.
The funding package for the capital program also envisions the use of $80 million of state general obligation bonds that have not yet been proposed or approved by the governor, lawmakers, or voters. Spending would include $40 million of bond proceeds in each of 2016 and 2017, with $32 million a year for bridges and roads and $8 million for multi-modal projects, including rail.
Funding sources also would include $50 million of grant anticipation revenue bonds, or Garvees, supported by Maine's annual funding from the Federal Highway Administration. The bonds, which would be issued in 2017, would have to be authorized by state lawmakers.
The comprehensive transportation plan lists almost 1,930 highway, airport, and seaport projects under construction or to be accomplished through fiscal 2017.
However, only the 523 of those projects planned for work in 2015 and estimated to cost $469 million have been fully funded and scheduled, said Maine transportation commissioner David Bernhardt.
Projects scheduled for 2016 and 2017 are at the mercy of fluctuations in funding, construction costs, and the weather, Bernhardt said.
Even with the $2 billion program, the state has a backlog of transportation infrastructure projects of $119 million a year, Bernhardt said. Unmet bridge needs alone total $70 million a year.
"With ongoing uncertainties about federal funding, shrinking buying power, and rapidly aging infrastructure, adequately funding Maine's, and the nation's, transportation needs continue to be challenging," he said.
Meanwhile, the Arkansas highway department removed three projects costing more than $30 million from its January bid list due to uncertainties over reimbursements from the Highway Trust Fund later this year.
The HTF could run short of money as early as July without congressional action, said state highway director Scott Bennett. The state would not be able to pay highway contractors for the three projects if reimbursements from the fund are delayed or deferred, he said.
"The federal government is putting the states in a real bind regarding the implementation of much-needed highway projects," Bennett said.
"We are hoping that a long-term revenue solution for the federal Highway Trust Fund can be found so we in Arkansas and across the country can continue to award planned construction projects and adequately invest in our nation's infrastructure," he said.
