IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Support the Troopers: A Rational Approach to Taxation ... Governor
Chet Culver, looking down the well into a near-billion-dollar 2010
deficit, wants to take $46 million from Iowa's $1.144 billion Road Use
Tax Fund to keep the State's Highway Patrol on the roads. Few if any
industries have more power over states' legislatures than their
highway lobbies. Iowa's no exception. They are an important sub-set of
the industries that, together, have created America's auto-dependent
transportation system -- leaving us without the passenger rail
networks other nations have. Think about it: the oil companies and
their station owner-operators; the automobile manufacturers, unions,
and dealers; the cement, steel, heavy equipment, and highway
contractor companies; all the independent auto repair businesses; the
auto scrap steel firms -- it goes on and on. We've paved some 61,000
square miles of America for roads and parking lots. That's an area
that, if it were a state, would make it the 24th largest state in the
country. It approaches the equivalent of the amount of land planted in
wheat.

Labels: transportation

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has been keeping track of how states are spending the stimulus funds allocated for roads. On September 2 the committee released a report ranking the states according to how much of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for highways and bridges had been put to work as of July 31. ... Of approximately $358 million Iowa received for highway and bridge projects, 85.1 percent was under contract and 74.9 percent was for projects already underway as of July 31. That's more than double the national average. Nationwide, about 40 percent of the stimulus road money was under contract and 32 percent funding construction that had already begun by the end of the July. Only 11 states had put even 50 percent of their stimulus road funds to work by that time.

Labels: transportation

June 29 was exactly 120 days since the federal government released
highway funds to the states as part of the economic stimulus bill
(American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Smart Growth America marked
the occasion by releasing a review on how wisely states are spending
the transportation money. ... I've been concerned that Iowa would spend
too much money this year on new road construction, which adds to
future maintenance costs, instead of fixing the roads and bridges that
need repair. Neither Iowa Department of Transportation director Nancy
Richardson nor the state legislature have shown much interest in
balanced transportation funding in the past. The fiscal year 2010-2014
Transportation Improvement Program approved earlier this month by the
Iowa Transportation Commission includes more money for road widening
than I would prefer.

Labels: transportation

In the early part of the century passenger rail service was the
preferred method of long-distance travel. Then along came more
advanced methods of transportation; the automobile and the airplane.
These methods quickly replaced rail as the most common methods of
transportation. This precipitated a sharp decline in rail service
until the 1970s. It was in 1971 that the federal government decided
to create Amtrak, the government sponsored passenger rail service that
we know today. Over the years Amtrak has proven to be nothing more
than a money pit. Amtrak has failed miserably in the quest for
self-sustainment. Instead it has relied heavily upon massive cash
infusion from the federal government to keep it operating.

Labels: transportation

Governor Chet Culver's $750 million bonding proposal is has met
serious objections with Democrats in the House and Senate. Legislative
Democrats want to change everything in Culver's proposal from what the
money would be used for to the types of bonds that will be used to
fund the program. The news of the dissension from fellow Democrats
comes as Culver is on a statewide tour trying to build support for his
proposal. Democrat lawmakers are offering a different $700 billion
dollar bonding plan that would not provide one dime for bridge and
road repairs.

Labels: Chet_Culver, gas_prices, transportation

The White House released detailed information today on the $28 billion
the stimulus bill directs toward highway construction. According to a
press release (sorry, no link), the highway spending will "lead to
150,000 jobs saved or created by the end of 2010." An estimated 95,000
jobs would come from the "direct impact of building new roads and
fixing old ones," while 55,000 jobs would come from "the economic
activity generated when these new workers spend more than they would
have otherwise." ... This page at Recovery.gov has a map you can use to
see how much money in highway funds will go to individual states. Iowa
is slated to receive about $358 million, of which about $240 million
can be used in any part of the state.

Labels: transportation

Allowing a proposed increase to the state's fuel tax to come to the
floor of either chamber of the legislature would be a huge mistake,
Gov. Chet Culver said Monday. Culver said the money Iowa would receive
from the recently passed federal stimulus bill, estimated at about
$358 million, makes a gas tax increase an even worse idea. "So I think
[legislators are] going to have a very tough time making the case to
average Iowans that, given the recession and given the fact that we
just received $358 million for road projects, that we need to raise
the gas tax right now," he said.

Labels: Chet_Culver, taxes, transportation

So you all know I absolutely hate the idea of raising the Gas Tax
during these difficult economic times. That's not to say that I don't
believe in investing in our roads and infrastructure. If you listen to
any of the legislators who support the gas tax increase you would
think that Iowa hasn't done anything to recently to help fund road
improvements, which simply isn't true. Last year the legislation was
passed and signed into law that increased vehicle registration fees
substantially in our state. The increase in registration fees was one
of the recommendations from the Time-21 study. The problem the
legislators are having is that money isn't rolling in fast enough.

Labels: taxes, transportation

Iowa Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, opened the 2009
session with a call for increasing the gas tax: "I support efforts
that result in a gas tax increase. Success in that endeavor will mean
better roads, jobs, and an economic boost to Iowa's families and
communities." ... Kibbie is an old school Democrat who drove a tank in
the Korean War and doesn't do shades of gray. He served in the Senate
in 1965, when Democrats took over the Statehouse and tackled little
stuff like abolishing capital punishment, passing a state civil rights
law, cutting the number of school districts in half, creating the
community college system and reforming the Legislature. He doesn't
take polls to see where he stands on issues.

Labels: gas_prices, transportation

Local pols all over the country are salivating at the prospect of a big federal stimulus package bulging with infrastructure bucks. Visions of superhighways and bridges dance in their heads. So what should be on our wish list? If I were king, I'd include light rail service between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Last I heard, the price tag for fixing up and expanding the old Crandic line to provide service to Cedar Rapids, North Liberty and on to Iowa City is around $70 million. If you think about it, that's the same cost as only 70 U.S. Senate appointmentsin Illinois by Gov. Blago the Bleeper. That ain't bad. If someone has different numbers, let me know. It's also a lot less than it would cost to add an extra lane to I-380, which, according to a story I found in our archives, would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Labels: transportation

I was asleep at the wheel when the Iowa House Democratic leadership made the committee assignments last week. I didn't notice that Representative Brian Quirk of New Hampton will replace Representative Geri Huser of Altoona as chair of the Transportation Committee. ... Does anyone know why Murphy would have wanted to replace Huser? As the Register notes, she is among the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus. I am not sure whether she was committed to the "fair share" bill that never came to a vote in the Iowa House in 2007. ... Some activists have suggested Huser has a conflict of interest because some of her work in the legislature and on the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization could financially benefit her family's business interests.

Labels: state House, transportation

Public Transportation: Having once been a part of a legal team
representing American Airlines, and subsequently a United Airlines
groupie (lifetime Red Carpet Club membership, credit card, "Mileage
Plus"), it is with sadness that I have finally had to acknowledge that
our airline industry is disfunctional as a transportation system. The
rising costs for fewer flights, including the nickle-and-diming us for
everything from pillows to peanuts, the delays, the even more crowed
seats, the lost luggage, the lines and necessity to dress twice the
morning of a flight to satisfy the terrorist-prevention folks -- the
list goes on. Add to this the flights' impact on greenhouse gasses,
global warming and the ozone hole, and it's just not the
transportation system it used to seem to be -- not to mention the fun.

Labels: transportation

Two identical bills in the House and Senate would increase
transportation revenue, such as vehicle registration and license fees,
and are likely to be voted on by the full legislature any day now. The
new money would be up to $126 million dollars more each year for
roads, in addition to the one BILLION of state funding that already
goes to roads. These bills just received new numbers - House File 2691
and Senate File 2420. Ask your legislators to vote no because: 1.
There is no fix-it-first policy to assure us that maintenance will
come first, and in this legislation, the new money could be wasted on
expensive new roads. 2. Public transit does not receive additional,
annual funding with the new money. Additional, reliable state funding
for transit would help us avoid high gas prices and reduce our carbon
footprint.

Labels: transportation

Many years ago TRS spent summers gandy dancing on the old Burlington
Northern Railroad. Yes, even as a lowly spiker I drank the railroad
kool-aid and have been a committed proponent of more use of railroads
for passenger use since TRS was a mere freshman Hawkeye. Today's DM
Register had a short story about a planned passenger route between
Chicago, a city with a great train station, and Iowa City. Since the
traffic is far greater between Des Moines and Chicago one has to
believe that it might be an even busier. Des Moines is also in the
middle of a geographic area that encompasses four major cities
(Minneapolis/St. Paul, Omaha, Chicago and Kansas City) that are
already connected by a large rail network.

Labels: transportation