Transportation secretary pleads for road money
By: Mannix Porterfield
CHARLESTON - No one came up with any cash cows that might be roaming about, but Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox did get some support Monday after inviting lawmakers to find money for West Virginia’s roads.
“We must look at some innovative sources of financing,” Mattox told a joint meeting of the Committees on Government Operations and Government Organization.
Not only is money short to build and maintain roads, but the secretary said the DOT is struggling to keep its workforce and needs an updated computer system.
While no one offered any suggestions, Delegate Randy Schwartzmiller, D-Hancock, agreed the money problem is critical.
“If we can come up with some alternative funding sources, I certainly would support it,” he told Mattox.
“If we don’t get on top of the roads sooner than later, we’re really going to have some problems.”
Since 1999, Mattox said, the state has seen its highway workforce shrink by 10 percent, and, based on Rahall Institute projections, within the next five years retirements will erode the base even more.
“It’s going to be critical that we are able to recruit and retain engineers, truck drivers and the work force to provide the services that the public comes to expect from the Division of Highways,” he told lawmakers.
What’s more, he said, the Division of Motor Vehicles is strapped with a system that isn’t “agency friendly.”
Both the vehicle and driver data systems aren’t linked, and, on top of that, neither can communicate with the revenue and inventory systems, which results in redundant entries, Mattox said.
“A modern computer system would allow information to be entered one time,” he said.
Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joe Ciccarello told Delegate Sam Argento, D-Nicholas, it would cost some $45 million to convert driver’s licenses to be in compliance with the so-called “real ID” cards Congress has mandated.
In addition, such a system would cost some $20 million to be maintained, he said.
Of the $40 million allotted in federal money so far, he said, Kentucky has used $3 million while another state has used a like amount. Nationwide, the real ID system is expected to cost $11 billion.
Ciccarello said he hopes some regulations will be modified so that West Virginia driver’s cards qualify for the type of security card Congress has in mind.
If that’s the case, all that would need to be done is to capture such essential data as birth certificates and Social Security numbers, the commissioner said.
Delegate Jim Morgan, D-Cabell, wondered if on-line registration is possible for organ donors.
“Probably we will be able to do that in the future, once we set everything up,” Ciccarello said.