Ohio has a new Republican governor, and the state has a transportation funding problem. Can a new group of advocates convince the state's political leadership to approve a new gas tax?
"Ohio legislators and the incoming DeWine administration will start off the new year staring down a huge transportation-budget problem," reports Jim Segel. "The state has run out of money for major new road-construction projects."
"State revenue for road and bridge construction is trending in the wrong direction, and the prospect of significant delays in major projects has prompted the formation of a coalition that will push policymakers to find new transportation money, particularly through an increase in the state gasoline tax," adds Segel.
The aforementioned coalition, Fix Our Roads Ohio (FOR Ohio), includes local governments, local chambers of commerce, contractors, county engineers, and truckers in an effort to advocate a new governor and new state legislators for a gas-tax increase to address the infrastructure funding gap in the state.
According to Segel, "projects like improvements to the Interstate 270/Interstate 71/Route 23 area on the South Side, improvements to Interstate 70 ramps at I-270 and at Brice Road on the Far East Side, the I-71 interchange with Routes 36/37, and reconstruction of I-70 and I-71 Downtown" are on the shelf while the state fails to address its transportation funding deficit.
Read the full story: Money for major Ohio road projects is gone; gas-tax hike proposed
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