The state of local infrastructure and the funds available to improve it dominated discussion Saturday morning at the first Legislative Update program of the 2013 Indiana General Assembly.
Meeting at the Farm Bureau building on North Jackson Street in Greencastle, second-term District 44 State Rep. Jim Baird (R-Greencastle) and his two newly-elected State Senate cohorts, Pete Miller (R-Avon) and Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville), shared information and tackled questions from about two dozen constituents.
Time and time again, the topic turned to the deteriorating state of Putnam County roads and bridges and the lack of money available to do much, if anything, about them.
"I'd like to thank everyone who brought up that we need more road money," Putnam County Commissioner Nancy Fogle said from the audience, explaining that the county maintains more than 700 miles of roads and this year will have a grand total of $300,000 to do it.
"It's a problem we have every year," Fogle said, further noting that hiring an asphalt company to resurface our roads with hot mix is a $102,000-a-mile proposition.
That figure caused County Council President Darrel Thomas, another audience member, to raise three fingers.
"Three miles," he said, doing the maximum road resurfacing math for those in attendance.
Rep. Baird, a one-time county commissioner before being elected to the statehouse, could easily commiserate with his county brethren.
He told the Update gathering that Senate Bill 505 proposes raising the gasoline tax from 18 cents to 20 cents per gallon. The formula for how the gasoline tax money is disbursed, Baird commented, "is more complex than the school formula in my opinion," he said.
Removing the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Indiana State Police from that funding mechanism has been proposed and theoretically would mean more gas tax money being available to the counties. However, that move would require finding a new funding stream for those two agencies somewhere else in the state budget.
Sen. Miller, meanwhile, pointed out that not as much money is available through the gasoline tax because of the recent economic factors. Today's cars and trucks are more efficient, which means people are buying less gasoline to operate them. And because of the higher gasoline prices that have prevailed in recent years, Hoosiers are driving fewer miles and using less gasoline.
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