Huckabee's Highway Plan Expected
"The votes will come tough," Speaker Bob Johnson, a democrat, said Monday as sponsors readied legislation for Huckabee's plan for introduction Tuesday. Talks continued on how to give it a boost with leery rural legislators.
The governor's $575 million bond issue and 3-cent diesel-fuel tax increase would generate more than $750 million, with interest, over several years to fix 320 miles of interstate highways deemed in poor or very poor condition.
The diesel tax increase, when fully implemented in three years, would generate about $10 million for the state Highway and Transportation Department and another $3 million to be split between cities and counties.
But the plan does not satisfy some lawmakers who want money to speed up road-building in areas that don't have interstates.
"Our bill is out there. There are going to be come other things that probably are going to be proposed, all of which is a work in progress," Huckabee said.
The governor needs 75 votes in the House to pass the diesel tax hike, which would not go into effect unless voters approved the bond issue in a special election.
Huckabee's office had sought Johnson as a lead sponsor, but the speaker said he declined after weeks of negotiations because the governor was ready to start pushing his bills to see where he stands, and Johnson wasn't.
"We worked hard at developing a companion bill to go out with the governor's bill that would adequately look after the needs of rural Arkansas," Johnson said. "That has not been developed yet.
I made that commitment to my colleagues, told them I could only
arry the bill under those circumstances."
