Transport officials buckle down
Tough budget session ahead as drastic cuts forecasted
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Consulting economist Tom Kavet (left) points to a document while addressing the Emergency Board meeting in Montpelier on Tuesday. The state’s revenue forecast was downgraded Tuesday by another $10 million for the current fiscal year and $35 million for the next. Kavet told the board the new forecast brings to $120 million the total forecast downgrade for fiscal 2009 during the past year, with another $200 million in downgrades for fiscal 2010. Toby Talbot / The Associated Press |
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By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: January 14, 2009
MONTPELIER — The roads are getting worse and the money is getting scarcer as transportation officials brace for one of the more difficult budgeting sessions in memory.
On Tuesday, economic analysts forecast yet another downgrade in the transportation fund. The dour news came as lawmakers received an Agency of Transportation report indicating that more than one-third of all state roads are now in "very poor" condition.
The approximately $4.5 million revenue downgrade announced Tuesday leaves a $10 million hole in the fiscal year 2009 budget. Legislators, already eyeing drastic cuts to town highway programs and Amtrak service, will likely cast an even wider net as they seek additional cost-cutting measures.
"We're going to be looking seriously at project slippages," said Transportation Secretary David Dill. "Project slippages maybe in rail, maybe in bridge maintenance."
Lawmakers already have cut more than $7 million in the current fiscal year budget. New equipment purchases have been eliminated almost completely; more than $1 million has been pared from the maintenance budget; and another $3 million has been pulled from program development.
The revenue losses, particularly acute in the purchase-and-use tax, come as pressures mount — the percentage of roads in "very poor" condition hit 36 percent in 2008, up from 22 percent in 2006. And Vermont remains among the worst in the nation in its percentage of structurally deficient bridges.
The road-condition report took few by surprise. Dill said the state had forecast as early as 2001 that more than 40 percent of roads would be in very poor condition by now. He said a three-fold increase in the state's paving budget since Gov. James Douglas took office has helped stem the deterioration.
"Yes, it's continued to get worse, but it's not a dramatic increase because we're putting in extra effort to keep it from being dramatic," Dill said.
Dill said though that more money is needed. And the funds, he said, will have to come from the federal government. Economic consultants said Tuesday that state transportation revenue for fiscal year 2010 will be just as austere, if not more so, than this year. And 2011 doesn't look good either.
Proposals to increase the gas tax, one potential new source of revenue, have no support in the Douglas Administration and face stiff opposition in the Senate. Dill said he's looking to the federal stimulus package and federal transportation reauthorization bill to rescue Vermont from its mounting transportation woes. That money, Dill said, might also help backfill rescissions to the 2009 budget.
"We need a massive federal investment across the nation to rebuild our infrastructure, because it's been 50 years since we've really done that," Dill said.
Dill has already decided to forgo filling the vacant deputy secretary position in his executive office. Sen. Dick Mazza, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation, used an oft-repeated mantra in the Statehouse to describe his approach over the next few weeks.
"Everything is on the table," Mazza said. "These are very rough times, and we need to take a hard look at everything we're spending money on."
Contact Peter Hirschfeld at peter.hirschfeld@rutlandherald.com.