LePage and lawmakers find common ground on $85M transportation bond
Although dozens of bills enacted in the final days of the 127th Legislature's first session remain in limbo due to the veto standoff between Gov. Paul LePage and lawmakers, the governor did sign into law a significant job-creation measure on July 1: L.D. 1415, an $85 million bond package for highway, bridge and multi-modal-facility projects throughout the state.
LePage's signature allows the bond package to go to a statewide referendum in November for final approval by voters.
“This critical investment of $85 million into Maine's transportation system will assure thousands of contractors and construction workers with long-term job security and continuing paychecks, and, in turn, will strengthen Maine's infrastructure and economy,” LePage said in a July 6 release announcing his signing of the bond bill.
The bond package includes:
• $17 million to construct, reconstruct or rehabilitate high-priority highways.
• $46 million for bridge replacements and rehabilitation.
• $17 million for ports, harbors, marine transportation, aviation, transit and freight and passenger rail.
The bond package also would fund additional improvements to the International Marine Terminal in Portland to support Eimskip's transatlantic shipping operations there.
If approved by voters in November, the transportation bond would be matched by an estimated $121.5 million in federal and other funds, according to L.D. 1415's wording for the referendum question.
L.D. 1415 in its original language had included an additional $90 million transportation bond referendum in November 2016, with $72 million slated to fund improvements to Priority 1, 2 and 3 state highways as well as the replacement or rehabilitation of bridges. Another $18 million was slated for intermodal transportation improvements.
But the additional $90 million in bond funding was removed prior to passage of the amended L.D. 1415 by a 134-13 vote in the House and a 32-3 vote in the Senate.
In his June 3 testimony in support of a two-year bonding plan, Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt told the Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs the $175 million bond request was not a “pie-in-the-sky” proposal.
“These are right-sized, basic, 'take-care-of-what-you-have' goals,” he said in his written testimony. “As a highway design engineer and head of the largest engineering organization in the state, I wish we could do more. … If this bond proposal is approved, the unmet need will be about $72 million per year.”
Matthew Marks, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of Maine, in his written testimony supporting the bonding plan, urged lawmakers to “do better” and to think of “public investment to fix our aging infrastructure” as providing the additional benefit of creating jobs for Maine's still-lagging construction industry.
“While the other sectors of Maine's economy are growing, the construction industry has only made slight gains, moving the needle to 19% unemployment since the peak in 2006,” he said.
More investment is clearly needed, he said, citing a national transportation group's report noting that 26% of Maine's major rural roads were rated in poor condition in 2013, the highest rate in the nation. He also noted that in 2014, 15% of Maine's rural bridges were rated as structurally deficient, the ninth-highest rate in the nation.
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