DALLAS -- More than $10 billion of water and transportation infrastructure proposals are on state and local ballots Tuesday, even as new money debt issues by states stays below average.
Most of the action is on the state level, including California's $7.5 billion of water bonds and Texas's $1.7 billion of new money for highways, but local questions include San Francisco's $500 million road bond proposal.
State transportation dollars would be protected from diversions in lock-box proposals in Wisconsin and Maryland, and Louisiana is seeking permission to capitalize an infrastructure bank for transportation projects.
Standard & Poor's said in July that state debt issuance remains below average levels even though there are large infrastructure needs and interest rates are low.
The Texas and California proposals, both of which are on their respective ballots as Proposition 1, are apparently well on the way to approval with more than half the voters surveyed supporting the measures in recent polls.
California's infrastructure proposition would authorize $7.1 billion of new general obligation bonds for water infrastructure projects and repurpose $425 million of already voter-approved but unsold GO bonds for water-related efforts.
Some $5.7 billion of the $7.5 billion of proceeds would be available only if local agencies can provide matching funds of up to 50% of the total project cost.
A recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 56% of likely voters favor Proposition 1 with 32% opposed.
An analysis of the proposal by California legislative budget experts said the state will pay about $360 million a year in debt service on the 30-year bonds for 40 years if all the authorized bonds are sold within 10 years at 3% interest.
Since 2000, California voters have approved about $20 billion of state bonds for water and other various environmental purposes. About $900 million of the authorized bonds remain available for new projects.
San Francisco voters are being asked to approve $500 million of GO bonds to provide $358 million for improved public transit and $142 million for street upgrades.
The proposal, which requires a two-thirds majority to pass, would not raise property tax rates, supporters say, because new debt would be issued as older bonds mature.
In Texas, a recent University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found 68% of likely voters favor Proposition 1, the sole statewide proposition on the November ballot with only 15% opposing it.
The constitutional amendment would transfer into the State Highway Fund a portion of the revenues from oil and gas production taxes that currently are dedicated to the state's rainy day fund.
The amendment could generate up to $1.7 billion for Texas roads in its first year, but that annual allocation could drop if drilling and production slacken following the recent drop in oil prices.
Louisiana will establish a state-capitalized infrastructure bank for transportation projects if voters approve Amendment Four.
Kenneth Perret, president of Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association, said South Carolina has financed $3 billion of local road projects with an infrastructure bank similar to the one proposed in Louisiana.
The bank is the best available option for whittling down the state's $12 billion road project backlog, he said.
"The genesis of the infrastructure bank is to find another way to make funds available for transportation projects, since we haven't been very successful at getting any additional revenues," Perret said.
In Massachusetts, voters will decide whether to repeal a 2013 law that indexed to inflation the state's 26.5 cents per gallon gasoline tax. Opponents of the repeal, which was put onto the ballot by a voter initiative petition drive, said a repeal would cut state spending on transportation by $1 billion over the next 10 years.
Public transportation facilities in Rhode Island would be upgraded if voters approve a proposal for $35 million of state GO bonds earmarked for transit system hub infrastructure.
