State funding source for new Mississippi River bridge looks possible

Note that the bridge will require federal matching funds and possibly even toll revenue. This is about the state funding, which seems impossible to get for larger projects like this or the Lake Charles bridge replacement.

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Funding source for new Mississippi River bridge advances to full Senate
LINK

An infrastructure bill advanced Monday by the Senate Finance Committee could have major implications for Baton Rouge and the quest for a new Mississippi River bridge.

HB514 by Speaker pro tem Tanner Magee, R-Houma, was initially drafted to levy a state sales tax on medical marijuana, but it was previously amended by Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, to extend the state’s 0.45-cent sales tax and send those dollars to the transportation department’s Construction Subfund, with up to 75% of the revenues going to complete a list of projects.

A portion of the shifted funds will be dedicated to the construction of a new bridge across the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge.

“Without something like this, we don’t have the ability to pay for [a new bridge],” Ward says. “Right now, we’re going through the engineering process, but once we finish that, we won’t have the funds to move forward with the project. This puts us closer to actually building something.”

Once the sales tax is extended and fully phased into the Construction Subfund, it’s estimated to generate $375 million annually. However, it’s not yet known what percentage of those annual revenues would go toward the bridge.

Meanwhile, another portion of the sales tax revenues would help fund the widening of I-12 to six lanes in the Florida Parishes, including East Baton Rouge—another potential boost for the Capital Region.

The state’s transportation industry is applauding the bill.

Altogether, Louisiana has lacked more than $300 million a year in additional recurring funding for major construction projects, says Scott Kirkpatrick, executive director of CRISIS. An additional $375 million in annual funding, such as that offered in the bill, would allow the state to issue bonds for these major construction projects.

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So how do we screw this up? Likely options that have derailed things in the past:

Add about 1,000 New Orleans area pet project to the dedicated project list on this bill and prioritize them over everything else, delaying the needed infrastructure by 40 years (TIMED model)?

Remove existing funding currently allocated to the type of projects in this bill and put it back into the general fund, making this a net zero gain of transportation spending but a net increase in tax revenue (Stelly model)?

Allow the governor to prioritize the projects and screw everything up completely (JBE model)?