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Road
Quality Improving Thanks To More Funding
By State Rep. Earl Sears
Oklahomans love
to drive.
There's so much
to see and do in our great state, it's easy to want to get in the car
and drive around town or to destinations like Little Sahara, Quartz
Mountain, Grand Lake, Beaver's Bend or sporting and cultural events.
Even with high gas prices, we still want to see it all.
Unfortunately, the
ride is often rough from our homes to our destinations due to poor road
and bridge conditions statewide. Every day, most of us drive over or
under crumbling, outdated bridges well in need of repair.
Also, our children
ride heavy buses to school over those same poor roadways and overpasses.
We're always looking out for our children's safety, but we've partially
overlooked the safety of the routes they take to school every day.
For many years,
Oklahoma roads left much to be desired. Prior to 2005, only about $200
million was allocated for our roads and bridges each year, $70 million
of which was for bond payments. That meant only about $130 million was
actually available for upkeep and construction of roads and bridges.
When you consider
the thousands of miles of road in Oklahoma, that's a paltry number,
yet that number stayed pretty level for decades.
Thanks to new efforts
in the past three years, the situation is getting better. We passed
a new law to better fund county roads thanks to an increased share in
the state motor vehicle taxes. That change kicks in this month, which
means every county in the state will receive 5 percent more to fund
road projects. That equates to about $28 million in new funding.
And that's only
the beginning. The amount of motor vehicle tax proceeds for counties
will go up to 10 percent next year, then 15 percent in 2009. Once it's
fully in place, county road projects will see an increase of about $85
million more per year thanks to this reform.
The Oklahoma Department
of Transportation also has a plan to fix the 100 most dilapidated county
bridges and 200 miles of county roads in the state within the next five
years. Those are improvements that you and I will soon see in our own
communities, first-hand.
With these reforms
and others like them, state funding for roads and bridges has been on
the upswing the past two years, increasing to about $395 million this
year. That's almost double what was provided just two years ago.
Roads are like arteries
that carry the lifeblood of our state - people. From keeping kids safe
on their way to school to supporting the trucks that deliver goods and
services, roads are important for every aspect of our daily lives. While
we can't go back two decades and fix the funding problems of the past,
a lot is being done in the present to ensure that, in the future, Oklahoma
roads are better than ever.
Earl Sears (R- Bartlesville)
serves District 11 of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He can
be reached by phone at (405) 557-7358 or via e-mail at earl.sears@okhouse.gov.
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