By Devon Turchan, The News-Herald  POSTED: 07/17/14

Like the potholes its money would go toward fixing, the Highway Trust Fund can’t seem to get much more than a patch job.
The House of Representatives on July 15 passed yet another a short-term plan for roads and public transportation funding.
The Senate will vote on legislation as soon as next week and the president is expected to sign whatever version reaches his desk in order to keep buses running and road projects on track.

Public transit leaders in Lorain, Cuyahoga and Lake counties would prefer the metaphoric equivalent of a resurfacing project or at least the opportunity to plan ahead more than a year.

Without secured finances, these agencies continue to base five-year plans on guesswork. Laketran General Manager Ray Jurkowski said his board, his fellow transportation colleagues in other agencies and he are urging members of Congress to come up with a permanent long-term solution.

“As long as things are uncertain, there are consequences that go along with that,” Jurkowski said. “We have to keep higher cash reserves on hand, we can’t count on the funding flowing without it being interrupted.” He said the situation is no different from any other business. “The more things are uncertain, the less you can do,” he said. “That is just not a rational approach. Infrastructure is so expensive. It requires three levels of government: state government and local governments could not bear this alone. When two partners —the federal and the state — aren’t stepping up to bat, it puts the burden on us.”

He offered another metaphor: “It’s like a patient in intensive care. Instead of trying to find a solution to get it out of intensive care, we are giving the patient a blood transfusion. It’s more like keeping the patient alive, not curing the patient.”

Roads and bridges, for 2013, have a grading of D+, according to the National Council on Public Works Improvement report titled “Fragile Foundations: A Report on America’s Public Works.”  That tax has not been raised since 1993.  Public transportation had a grade of D for 2013.

The RTA won’t quite come to a halt without an increase in funding, but there are needs, said Gale Fisk. He is the executive director of office management and budgeting for the agency. He said for funding, 70 percent comes from a sales tax, 22 percent from fares and the remaining 8 from federal and state funding. However, he said, “The bulk of the maintenance and infrastructure upgrades come from capital grants … directly out of the trust fund. Despite a year-to-year funding trend, RTA plans ahead five years. The agency annually spends about $270 million on operations and about $75 million on capital, Fisk said. “We know that we have about $65 million in needs that are in excess of the funding that would be provided if it stays consistent with this bill,” he said.

“A seven- or eight-month resolution doesn’t help with that for long-term planning,” Lorain County Commission President Ted Kalo said. 

Members of the House voted 376-55 to pass a $10.8 billion bill, which keeps funding where it already was through May 31, 2015.
For example, Kalo said he’d like to plan ahead for “all of our road projects, without a doubt, aging infrastructure that needs to be addressed. Most of Ohio is rated a ‘D’ with bridges. We need to move forward — traffic isn’t going to stop.”

Each gallon of gas purchased is taxed 18.4 cents, which goes into the Highway Trust Fund that supports repairs to roads and bridges.
The Highway Trust Fund is more significant to Lorain County Transit Authority, where there is no designated revenue stream, Kalo said.

“We’ve tried twice now to pass a small property tax levy under consideration,” Kalo said.  A property tax idea failed in the May primary and Kalo said voters turned down sales tax items in the past.  He said there is discussion of putting the property tax issue back on the ballot in November. And hard times bred harder times when the county had to turn down nearly $10 million in grant money because they couldn’t come up with matching funds.

“Lorain County likes its cars. People don’t see as much of a need for public transportation, even though we know it’s extremely important to senior citizens, youths and working poor.”