Senior Reporter
Delaware Budget Boosts Transportation Trust Fund but Hikes Truck Fees
House Bill 140 authorizes the state to spend an additional $55 million on transportation infrastructure projects beginning in October and more than $390 million over the next six years, according to Delaware Transportation Secretary Jennifer Cohan.
“This legislation represents a significant step in addressing the revenue shortfall in the transportation trust fund that has threatened our ability to ensure the modern infrastructure that is critical to our future,” Markell said at the bill signing.
Proud to sign a balanced budget for FY16 #netDE pic.twitter.com/8JJMvaQV30
— Gov. Jack Markell (@GovernorMarkell) July 1, 2015
The $55 million extra in transportation funding will be added to the Delaware Department of Transportation’s $857 million in annual expenditures from state and federal revenues.
“It was a challenge to get the extra funding, but we’re ready to go,” Cohan told Transport Topics. “We’ve been working on this for a couple of years. The governor recommended a 10-cent gas tax increase last year that was rather unpopular.”
After the tax increase effort failed, Cohan, the state’s former department of motor vehicles director, said she began studying increasing non-recurring state vehicle fees that had not been raised in a decade.
Cohan took over as state DOT secretary in February.
Lee Derrickson, executive director of the Delaware Motor Transport Association, said the increased fees will in turn cause an increase in motor carrier operating costs.
Of particular concern for truckers is a motor vehicle document fee increase to 4.25% from 3.75% of the cost of a new truck, and a jump in overweight permit fees to $30 from $10, Derrickson said.
“They slipped the document fee through at the last minute,” Derrickson said. “I’m sure I’ll hear something about that from our smaller operators.”
However, with such major highways as Interstates 95, 295 and 495 and U.S. Route 301 slicing through Delaware and carrying heavy truck traffic, Derrickson said the extra funding will help some of the state’s roads and bridges in need of repair.
“We’re part of the Northeast corridor,” he said. “There are a lot of places where the roads really do need maintenance. Like every state in the rest of the country, we haven’t poured a lot of money into it for several years.”
Before the extra capital infusion was approved, the state had 49 projects on hold that will now move to the next phase in the process, Cohan said.
But the top priority will be for the extra funding to be spent on “state-of-good-repair projects,” that is, repaving roadways and community streets, Cohan said.
The new revenues will include $23.5 million from increases in 14 different DMV fees, $1.5 million from increases in overweight truck permit fees, transferring $5 million from the state’s general fund and the authority to borrow $25 million, according to state Department of Transportation July 9 briefing documents.
Like other states, Delaware has faced uncertainty in securing federal dollars for transportation infrastructure as Congress has extended highway funding 33 times without passing a long-term bill.
“What we did two years ago is secure a line of credit for $50 million in case something did happen at the federal level that would impact us negatively so we could continue to fund projects already in construction,” Cohan said.
