Give input on Iowa’s road fund planning

By Nancy Richardson

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When I took over as Iowa Department of Transportation director 5 1/2 years ago, among my goals was improving Iowa's multimodal transportation system to support the social and economic vitality of the state. Certainly, progress has been made toward this goal, but there is much more to be done and that will be the focus regardless of who is director.

But improving Iowa's multimodal transportation system takes all Iowans' support and recognition of how important transportation is to all of us and what we're willing to pay for it.

Over the next eight months, Iowans will have just that opportunity regarding our state's roads. The Iowa DOT is required to perform a study every five years of the sufficiency of Iowa's Road Use Tax Fund (RUTF) to meet the needs of Iowa's state, county and city roads. The study will assess the current condition and future needs of Iowa's roads, and make projections of available federal, state and local funding.

In 2006, when the last study was done, a

$200 million annual shortfall in projected funding was identified in what is required to meet the most critical of unmet needs. In fact, the annual shortfall to meet all needs, across all three jurisdictions' systems of roads, was about $1.4 billion!

There is no reason to think that the 2011 study's findings will be any less dramatic, if not more. Over the last five years, Iowa experienced some of its most extreme weather ever, especially snowfall and flooding. This double whammy of moisture has exposed the vulnerability of Iowa's 114,000 miles of roads.

Roads are essential to all of us for almost everything we do. It's vital to keep them in good repair and incorporate current safety features to get us and our loved ones where we need and want to go efficiently and safely.

Now consider how much you pay to have those roads. User fees, such as vehicle registration fees and fuel taxes, are the primary funding for roads in Iowa. These state revenues are deposited in Iowa's RUTF, where they are restricted by the Iowa Constitution for road purposes only and are shared by state, county and city governments.

If you drive 13,000 miles per year in a vehicle that gets 25 miles per gallon, you use about 520 gallons of fuel in a year. At Iowa's current state tax rate on regular fuel of 21 cents per gallon, you pay only $109 in state fuel taxes for those 520 gallons of fuel. Federal Highway Trust Fund taxes would add $96.

Add those to your annual vehicle registration fee - say $130 (2010 average) - and you have paid $335 in a year to help defray the costs of Iowa's roads.

Now compare that

$335 to what you pay each year in cable television, Internet or cellphone bills, for example. If you are like me, your cable TV bill alone is more than the fees you pay to have good roads.

I encourage you to take a public stand on the importance of increased investment in Iowa's roads. Gov. Terry Branstad has appointed a Transportation 2020 Citizen Advisory Commission (CAC) to assist the Iowa DOT with developing recommendations to the Legislature.

The CAC will hold a series of public meetings this summer to share the DOT study's results, seek your input about recommendations and encourage your support of those recommendations going forward.

I hope you will attend one of these meetings to both learn and share your thoughts on the importance of Iowans providing sufficient funding to preserve and improve the state's road system.

Roads do matter to each and every one of us each and every day!

Nancy Richardson, Iowa DOT director from Oct. 1, 2005, through April 28, 2011, was recently appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad to co-chair the Governor's Transportation 2020 Citizen Advisory Commission. Comments: nrichar1@hotmail.com