• Legislative committee to discuss fuel tax hike

 

By Alex Hargrave
Buffalo Bulletin
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

BUFFALO — The Wyoming Department of Transportation is working on its latest long-range transportation plan that will guide its road management through 2050.

With inflation driving up costs, the agency’s buying power is diminished, said Brenden Schaefer, a systems planning engineer. So, facing financial challenges, the state’s updated policies and priorities will guide its work moving forward.

In the transportation department’s current long-range transportation plan, updated in 2010 and guiding work through 2035, its strategy is preservation, which means maintaining existing infrastructure. Other options include disinvestment, during which road conditions would deteriorate, or progress and building new infrastructure.

“What (preservation mode) was meaning was we weren’t doing any new construction, minimizing expansion,” Schaefer said. “The problem with preservation mode is that if you don’t have funding that keeps up with inflation, you start slipping into a disinvestment mode. We’re probably slipping – or have slipped – into the beginnings of that.”

The department will receive $812.2 million in revenue in 2025 from three funding categories: the fuel tax, annual fees for vehicle registration and drivers licenses and other state revenues, according to the long-range planning website. 

Of that, $469.4 million is allocated to the agency’s highway improvement program, which pays for pavement maintenance, passing lanes and other functions.

The website notes that revenue sources have remained flat over the past decade. The fuel tax rate has been the same since 2014. And because new vehicles are more fuel efficient, fuel tax revenue has been stagnant. 

Over the same time period, the agency’s construction costs have climbed by 42%.

The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Transportation, Highway and Military Affairs Committee has discussed increasing the state’s fuel tax during its interim session. At its August meeting, the committee voted to table a bill that would raise the state’s fuel tax from 23 cents per gallon to 33 cents per gallon by summer 2028 with incremental five-cent increases. 

The topic is on the agenda for the committee’s Oct. 20 meeting in Cheyenne.

To improve road conditions and reverse eight years of wear, WYDOT would need to invest more than $2 billion over the next 10 years, according to the agency’s long-range planning website.

Last legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that allocated sales and use taxes on motor vehicles and trailers to the state’s highway fund beginning July 1. The fiscal note on the legislation estimates that the highway fund could see a $69.2 million bump next fiscal year.

Schaefer said that while the agency will likely still struggle to keep up with inflation despite the boost, it’s an important step.

“That was definitely a big help and that’s going in the right direction, so we’re really happy about that,” he said.

Wyoming is not alone in its road-funding gaps, said Jordan Young, WYDOT deputy public affairs officer.

“We’ve been hearing from other DOTs that their costs are also going up, so it’s more of an industry-wide (issue),” she said. “I think a lot of industry saw a boom post-COVID for a lot of infrastructure projects, so that might have something to do with it as well. That supply chain is holed up there with some materials that everybody wants at the same time – concrete, asphalt, aggregate, things like that.”

Buffalo sits at the intersection of three “significant corridors” identified in the 2010 long-range plan – U.S. Highway 16 West from Buffalo to Worland, Interstate 90 from Sheridan to Sundance and Interstate 25 from Buffalo to Cheyenne. These corridors are considered high-volume routes that connect major activity centers in and out of Wyoming.

Wyoming, expansive and sparsely populated compared with other states, has the highest per capita miles traveled in the country, according to the planning website. 

Testimonials from industry trade groups, including those representing railroads, agriculture, trucking and contractors, emphasize the importance of a functioning transportation system.

Dan Benford, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Wyoming, which represents the state’s construction industry, said in an interview that the industry – and the state’s economy, generally – relies on roads. Preservation as a strategy is not sustainable, he said.

“A lot of times, we have a nice top layer, but we find substructures are deteriorating or they haven’t been managed in the time frames they should’ve been,” Benford said.

The contractors association works closely with the department, he said. Its members, who are hired for road work projects, make investments in its workforce and equipment knowing they have pending projects. State transportation projects, of course, require funding.

Also, it’s important for all industries to increase capacity rather than to just preserve existing infrastructure, Benford said. He said he feels optimistic that “we’re going to see some movement” on the issue in the Legislature.

“We have incredible truck traffic moving freight across the state – ag moving livestock and product to market, the oil and gas industry moving across infrastructure – and that doesn’t even count tourism,” he said. “… We need to take on new projects and address some of these things and add capacity so we can continue to be a great state that sees millions of people come visit.”

Young said that the department expects to launch a third online meeting and release more information on the long-range transportation plan in late October. 

More information on the plan and opportunities to comment are available at https://wydotlrtp.com/ events-map/.

Young and Schaefer said the department is encouraging public engagement in the planning process so residents can identify their own road priorities.

“The transportation system is kind of like water or electricity in your house. In your house, you expect it to be there when you turn it on or when you need it,” Schaefer said. “It costs money to have that. So we just want people to realize, if they want a certain level of serviceability or conditions, there are costs associated with that. 

“And if they want to have a really nice transportation system, it’s going to cost money,” he continued, “and at that point they have to figure out, well, what, what are they willing to pay for, and how can they pay for it?”