Funding critical transportation needs in a struggling economy

Here I am giving an Arkansas perspective on transportation and infrastructure at the 12th Annual Transportation Summit today in Irving. It's good to hear that other states are also struggling to meet even the most critical of transportation needs. With a flat, dedicated fuel tax that has largely remained stagnant over the last few decades, states are finding it next to impossible to even maintain what we have, much less find the matching funds for new insterstate construction. Politically, legislatures have shown an unwillingness to look at alternative funding mechanisms in the current climate, but here in Arkansas, a blue ribbon committee has been convened to do just that. Other states are doing the same. In Texas, they've considered local options to allow locales to fund the bulk of transportation revenue with the state merely supplementing, but that would set up a system of winners and losers.

Up next is U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Update (Sat.): Here's an article on the summit from the Texas political blog The Lone Star Report.

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