Minneapolis Bridge Collapse Fuels Louisiana Veto Session Lobby

By Guillet, Jaime

The tragic Interstate 35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis has Louisiana legislators calling for a veto session to override Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s veto of Senate Bill 146, which would have dedicated an annual revenue stream to the state’s ailing transportation infrastructure.

State Rep. Tim Burns, R-Mandeville is lobbying other legislators to vote in the veto session on SB 146. Burns has been a member of the House Transportation Committee for four years. A $14-billion backlog of state transportation infrastructure needs call for an override of Blanco’s veto, he said.

“There has always been a need to find a defined source of revenue for transportation infrastructure,” said Burns. “You’re not going to chip away at it with a one-time dedication.”

The Legislature tried to dedicate transportation revenues during the most recent session with House Bill 722 and SB 146. SB 146 passed almost unanimously and HB 722 stalled in the Senate Finance Committee because Blanco’s “floor leaders killed it,” said Burns. He said Blanco and her administration “resisted any effort to dedicate revenue streams to transportation.”

SB 146 authored by state Sen. Reggie Dupre, D-Houma, would create the Windfall Highway, Infrastructure and Protection Fund and direct certain overflow mineral revenues into the Transportation Trust Fund. Any overflow from the Mineral Revenue Fund’s $850-million cap goes into the state Rainy Day Fund. When the RDF reaches $250 million the overflow goes into the General Fund.

The Dupre bill puts 30 percent of the overflow from the General Fund into the Coastal Restoration Fund and 70 percent into the Transportation Trust Fund. Of that 70 percent, 10 percent would go to ports and 5 percent goes to the Freshwater Basin. Then in 2015, when the state receives all the federal monies past the 3-mile limit per the federal legislation, the ratio would switch to 80-20 and then to 90-10 in 2017.

Blanco’s press office referred CityBusiness to her July 19 veto statement on SB 146: “I am concerned about dedicating yet more revenues in the state’s budget. Such statutory dedications reduce flexibility and substantially limit the ability of leaders to respond to other critical needs, such as education and health care, and to prepare for and respond to disasters. My budget already addresses critical infrastructure, hurricane protection and coastal restoration needs with the infusion of more than $800 million in Fiscal Year 2008.”

Burns cites the Federal Highway Administration’s claim that 94 of Louisiana’s 2,616 bridges are structurally deficient and 569 are in so badly maintained they can’t be used.

By law, a majority of the House and Senate must vote to hold a veto session. Legislators have until midnight to vote.

Credit: Jaime Guillet

(Copyright 2007 Dolan Media Newswires)

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