A $60 million transportation bond to help fund stalled road and bridge projects is heading for a floor fight after the Transportation Committee voted late last week to attach it to the supplemental highway budget.
House Minority Leader David Bowles said Monday he would force a showdown on the bond and would either call for the budget to be delayed or strip the bond off for a separate vote.
“The transportation bill coupled with the bond will not receive two-thirds passage in the House,” Bowles said. Without a two-thirds vote, the supplemental highway budget wouldn’t go into effect at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, but would instead be delayed until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. Adjournment is now expected at the end of April or early May.
At issue is an apparent deal between Democratic and Republican leaders that said no transportation bonds would be floated this year if the two parties came together and gave two-thirds support for the regular state supplemental budget passed last month.
They did and Bowles now says Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Hancock, the chairman of the Transportation Committee, is being “obstinate” by marrying the bond to the transportation budget request.
Damon, whose committee voted 9 to 3 last Thursday to put the bond in the budget, says it should be up to the people of Maine to decide if they want to spend more money on road improvements.
“We must have the courage and the will to do the right thing for the people of Maine,” said Damon, who added his committee has a proud tradition of not breaking along party lines.
Asked if he was directly told by Democratic leadership not to push the bond, he said their words were: “We wish you wouldn’t.” His reply, he said, was “I wish I didn’t have to, but we have a problem that needs to be fixed.”
The bond would help fill a $130 million hole in the state’s transportation budget that was identified last fall after the federal highway budget was released. Rising construction costs and projects earmarked by the state’s congressional delegation knocked 143 other projects in 112 communities off the table.
Sen. Christine Savage, R-Knox County, a long-time committee member, said, “We all know there’s been an agreement made that there wouldn’t be any bonds,” but that deal was brokered without consulting the Transportation Committee. “I know what my vote will be,” she said, before voting for the bond package.
What the committee is proposing now is a $60 million GARVEE (Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle) bond, authorized by Congress, that allows states to bond in anticipation of future federal funds. Originally the committee had voted to split the bond into two pieces – a $30 million federally guaranteed bond and a $30 million state revenue bond backed up by the gas tax – but found they could save $250,000 in preparation costs by just bonding once.
The bond would be floated for 15 years and would cost $24 million in interest at a 5 percent interest rate, which transportation officials say is a high estimate. The only other time the state floated a GARVEE bond was for $48 million to fix the failing Waldo-Hancock bridge.
Sen. Jonathan Courtney, R-York County, who was so miffed at Damon he considered voting against his working waterfront tax break on the Taxation Committee, said the GARVEE bond was the most irresponsible of all.
“It’s the worst type of bond,” he said, because it obligates future federal funding, which is the backbone of the state’s transportation budget.
The bond doesn’t require voter approval and only needs a simple majority of the Legislature, versus the two-third required by state-backed bonds. But Damon said he wants to put the bond out on the November ballot to assure taxpayers have their say.
The bonds were part of solution that came out of a task force Gov. John Baldacci put together to suggest ways to make up the shortfall. It recommended a package of bonding and covering some of the roadwork in the state budget. Republican leaders, who have said all along they wouldn’t authorize any new bonds this year, would only agree to putting $15 million in the supplemental budget for highway projects.
“I think they were wrong to make the deal,” said Rep. Boyd Marley, D-Portland, the committee co-chairman. “If we had a mill that was closing and we were losing 100 jobs, we would fight to save those jobs,” he said. The shortage in the transportation budget represents between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs lost, he said, and deserves a similar fight.
Transportation Commissioner David Cole, who works for the governor, said Baldacci was waiting to see what the Transportation Committee suggested.
“The governor is waiting to see what solutions come out of the committee,” he said.
Committee members say they can win a floor fight.
“I’ve talked to people back home and all over the state – not just Aroostook,” said Rep. Ross Paradis, D-Frenchville, and voters and fellow legislators understand the roads are in “terrible shape.”
“It’s pay me now or pay me later,” he said.
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