Highway Work Ahead, And It’s About Time
The long-delayed Arkansas highway funding initiative moved along this week, passing a Senate committee with one official no vote. read more >
The long-delayed Arkansas highway funding initiative moved along this week, passing a Senate committee with one official no vote. read more >
While Gov. Asa Hutchinson's $300 million per year plan for highways will raise diesel prices for truckers, they'll eventually come out ahead through time saved and fewer equipment repairs, the Arkansas Trucking Association says. read more >
Gov. Asa Hutchinson and legislative leaders unveil a $300 million per year plan to maintain Arkansas' roads and bridges — one billed as the largest single highway proposal in the state's history. read more >
Arkansas needs hundreds of millions more dollars to adequately maintain current roads and bridges and keep up with future needs. The last new money the state dug up for Arkansas highways was $50 million the governor scraped together in 2016 from existing sources. read more >
Gov. Asa Hutchinson sees highway funding as a priority when the state’s next legislative session opens in January. read more >
Arkansas' governor says he believes it's possible to find consensus for raising additional money for the state's highways, but is stopping short of endorsing a specific plan yet to do so. read more >
The Arkansas Good Roads Foundation and the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce release a study that showed the projected economic impact of increased spending on state roads and highways. read more >
Joe Quinn has been named executive director of the Arkansas Good Roads Foundation in Little Rock. read more >
The defeat of an effort to put a highway initiative on the Arkansas ballot next year leaves highway advocates few options for finding new ways to close a growing funding gap. read more >
Arkansans prefer maintaining roads to building new ones, would favor a sales tax on fuel wholesalers and support making permanent the temporary one-half cent sales tax they approved in 2012, researchers said. read more >
A much-needed increase in annual highway funding is a problem. It’s a problem because the needs are so great, and the options for attainable, incremental funding are limited. In order to achieve the increases necessary to benefit all Arkansans, public involvement is needed in the development of new public policy leading to increased funding. read more >
This is the perfect time to increase the fuel tax. Gasoline remains relatively cheap in historic terms, and the price per gallon can easily fluctuate by 5 cents per day. If we are going to have decent roads, we need an adequate and reliable funding mechanism — and spending the state rainy-day fund and nickel-and-diming other government needs just screams inadequate and unreliable, doesn’t it? read more >
The board of the Arkansas Good Roads Foundation has elected Shannon Newton and Harold Beaver to its executive committee, it announced this week. read more >
Gas taxes are the fairest, simplest way to fund good roads. But revenue from the per-gallon consumption tax is declining because vehicles are using less gas. And consumption will continue to fall as cars and trucks become ever more efficient. read more >
Arkansas consumers recognize the importance of smoother and safer roads. Consumers get it. And here’s hoping the new Highway Funding Working Group assembled by Gov. Asa Hutchinson gets it, too. read more >
