The challenges facing Maine’s transportation system are brought sharply into focus in the report “Connecting Maine,” a planning document released this summer by the Maine Department of Transportation.
According to the study, the system will encounter a $2.6 to $2.8 billion funding gap over the next 10 years, a hole that will add to the state’s deteriorating infrastructure, halt investments in rail, freight and aviation, and further hobble the state in competing in the global economy.
“The funding crisis is now,” the report’s executive summary said. “The need to change how we support transportation investment in Maine is immediate. . . . Doing more with less is no longer the reality – it is now doing less with less.”
Residents have probably seen evidence of the problem on the state’s roads. Funding deficiencies prompted the last state Legislature to cancel 75 percent of its road paving program to meet the 2010-2011 Highway Fund Budget.
The “Connecting Maine” report proposed some solutions, including increasing the motor vehicle gas tax, more long-term bonding, toll increases and other user-based fees.
The next governor will likely have to consider those options.
At stake is the condition of Maine’s bridges, 288 of which the DOT recently identified as potentially getting posted or closed in the next 10 years, and 20 percent of the state’s 8,400 miles of highway needing significant improvement.
Today, the gubernatorial candidates addressed those and other initiatives, including their positions on passenger rail, a topic of interest in Lewiston-Auburn. Although local rail advocates were left jilted when the state received $35 million in federal funding to upgrade rail lines between Portland and Brunswick, voters in June approved a bond package that included $2 million for Danville Junction, a key project for the region’s Portland-Montreal passenger vision.
Although the Obama Administration’s rail initiative has re-energized passenger rail advocates, the plan is encountering growing opposition nationally from Republican gubernatorial candidates, who have threatened to return federal grants.
The following are the candidates’ positions on rail and other transportation issues.
Eliot Cutler, 64, independent
During last month’s forum at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, Cutler underscored the importance of Maine’s roads and bridges to the state’s tourism agency.
“We have a backlog of unfunded liability,” Cutler said recently. “Our roads and bridges are in need of major repair, and they need it in the next 20 years. This is a safety matter. And it affects tourism, our No. 1 industry.”
Cutler said he would consider proposals to narrow the funding gap, including raising the gas tax and tolls.
On rail, Cutler said Maine needs to be careful about relying on passenger rail to fulfill transportation needs when its roads and bridges are in disrepair. However, he is a strong advocate for freight rail, which he said, could move products and commerce without stressing state highways.
He also favors flexible bus service.
“We need to pay attention in Maine to what people really need and then fashion transportation policy to fit those needs,” he said.
John Jenkins, 58, independent
Jenkins said the state needs to have a comprehensive transportation policy that includes inter-modal connectivity, such as coordinating rail and bus service.
He said the only transportation projects he would support are the ones that are driven by commerce.
“We need to tie economic development to transportation projects,” he said. “That’s how we pay for the next phase.”
Jenkins supports passenger rail, particularly in Lewiston-Auburn, which he said was wrongly left out of the state’s application for federal funding.
Most importantly, he said, is making sure communities have a voice in state projects.
“I want the state to be a hand-in-glove partner with municipalities,” he said. “Towns need a partner in Augusta, which has access to federal dollars and bonds.”
Paul LePage, 61, Republican
LePage said the first step to bridging the transportation funding gap is to stop “transferring money out of DOT to other feel-good programs.”
He also blamed the condition of the state’s roads and bridges on the transportation department’s “bloated bureaucracy.” He didn’t give specifics, but said the department would be held accountable in his administration.
LePage said his priorities were roads, bridges, a deep-water port and rail, in that order.
Although he likes the idea of passenger rail, LePage said it “might be a hard sell in Maine.”
“If you couple it with tourism, you might be able make it work,” he said.
In terms of funding transportation, LePage said he wouldn’t rule out bonding, but he said the state needed to “think outside the box.”
He said he didn’t favor raising the gas tax “at this time.”
As for rejecting federal funds, like stimulus money, as other Republican governors have threatened to do, LePage was noncommittal.
“I’m not going to say yes or no,” he said. “I’d have to read the fine print. If the fine print puts handcuffs on me, I don’t like handcuffs.”
Libby Mitchell, 70, Democrat
Mitchell said the state needs to invest in a diverse transit system.
“Passenger rail needs to be part of any serious discussion about long-range transportation planning,” she said. “That includes rail, ports, roads and bridges.”
Mitchell was reluctant to prioritize funding for those projects.
“That’s not a fair choice,” she said. “I think you have to do them all.”
Mitchell said she does not support raising the gas tax.
Shawn Moody, 51, independent
Moody said roads and bridges were his funding priorities. He was skeptical of passenger rail.
“I think Mainers are too independent,” Moody said. “It’s like leading a horse to water; we’re not going to drink. In densely populated areas it makes sense, but we’ve tried it, we’ve tested it. Most of it is heavily subsidized.”
He added, “I’m all for rail if it’s privately funded.”
Rail advocates often argue that roads and highways can’t be sustained without subsidies from gas, county, state and property taxes.
Nonetheless, Moody said the state needs to stop raiding the transportation budget to pay for other programs.
Moody said he’d be a proponent of an east-west highway, which he said would boost commerce and economic development opportunities.
“I think it would be a great economic boom for the northern part of the state,” he said.
Kevin Scott, 42, independent
Scott said passenger and freight rail, specifically in western Maine, topped his transportation to-do list.
However, if faced with limited funding, Scott said roads and bridges would be his first priority.
Scott said he’d need to see specific demand figures before bonding for a rail project.
“I think we bond too frequently,” he said. “We end up turning it into a niche project.”
Tomorrow: Who’s taking the no-new-tax pledge?
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