Capitol Ideas | 2012 | Issue 2 | Transportation by The Council of State Governments

MAR | APR 2012

HOT TOPIC : Transportation

Pay to Pave:

15 States to Watch in Financing Options Safety Scorecard: Laws Aim to Make Roads Safer What’s on Your State’s Plate? Panama Canal and U.S. Ports

”I think there are some exciting times ahead, but we really have to work hard now to change how we look at transportation and transportation solutions.” —Illinois Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider

P LU S : Trilo g y of Fe deralism Cases b efore U. S. Supreme Cour t

Don’t settle for just a snapshot…

… get the BIG PICTURE on energy & environment in the Capitol Ideas May/June issue. Download the electronic version of Capitol Ideas to your favorite e-reader by visiting www.csg.org/capitolideas.

CAPITOL IDEAS CAPITOL IDEAS|| contents contents © Corbis/ Paul Schulenburg

ON THE COVER Illinois Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider, shown in Illinois Department of Transportation offices in Springfield, said federal inaction has led to many frustrations at the state level. While Congress has passed reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration bill, it still must pass a surface transportation bill that will allow states to better plan projects, she said. Photo by Rodney Margison

MARCH/APRIL 2012

Georgia is asking voters to decide whether to raise the state sales tax by a penny to fund transportation projects tied to a specific region. Fifteen other states are looking at financing alternatives for transportation projects.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood lays out his priorities in a reauthorization of the surface transportation bill. “To compete for the jobs and industries of the future, America must out-innovate and outbuild the rest of the world,” he said.

States have adopted laws banning texting and/or the use of hand-held cell phones, but there’s no clear indication those bans are making roads safer.

States must fund often-neglected modes of transportation to ensure the transport of freight remains safe and competitive in a global economy.

HOT TOPIC— FINANCING ALTERNATIVES

10 QUESTIONS— RAY LAHOOD

HOT TOPIC— ROAD SAFETY

HOT TOPIC— FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION

MAR / APR 2012

CAPITOL IDEAS

contents | CAPITOL IDEAS

hot topic | 13 FINANCING ALTERNATIVES

18 AVIATION FINANCING

Congress recently passed a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration funding bill, but the delays in approval created some uncertainty in the states. 27 ROAD SAFETY States have adopted laws banning texting and/or the use of hand-held cell phones, but there’s no clear indication those bans are making roads safer. 30 STATE LICENSE PLATES Some are bold and beautiful, while others offer ways to raise money for a cause, but all state license plates share a couple of common goals—they identify a vehicle’s ownership and say a little about that state. 32 FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION States must fund often-neglected modes of transportation to ensure the transport of freight remains safe and competitive in a global economy. 34 PORTS IN TRANSITION The expansion of the Panama Canal could change the face of ports in the U.S. States are making investments to ensure their ports remain competitive—from the ports on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to the ports on the West Coast. 36 MASS TRANSIT Ten things state policymakers should know about the buses and light rail that take commuters from place to place.

features | 42 ECONOMY VS. ECOSYSTEM

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

Policymakers are striving to find a balance between protecting the delicate ecosystem of the Great Lakes and preserving much-needed jobs. Not all states agree on how to do that.

44 FEDERALISM CASES Three prominent cases making their way through the U.S. Supreme Court address the issue of federalism. Lisa Soronen, executive director of the State and Local Legal Center, offers insight into what these cases mean for the states.

they said it | regional roundup |

5 TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES 6 EAST 7 SOUTH 8 MIDWEST 9 WEST by the book | 10 STATE TOLLS Tolling has been one feature of a state’s portfolio in raising money for transportation. Florida has the most toll road miles, while New York has the most toll bridges.

in the know | 12 KEY ISSUES IN TRANSPORTATION

Sean Slone, senior transportation policy analyst at The Council of State Governments, offers three things you should know about what’s going on in transportation.

10 questions | 20 CREATE JOBS THROUGH INFRASTRUCTURE

straight talk | 38 TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES

Transportation officials discuss the challenges, and possible solutions, facing states today with regard to infrastructure.

stated briefly | 40 AFFILIATE & ASSOCIATION NEWS

News from The Council of State Governments and its affiliates

how to | 46 CREATE A 21ST CENTURY DMV on the road | 47 UPCOMING MEETINGS shout out | 48 WYOMING SENATOR MICHAEL VON FLATERN

A pilot and owner of a private charter air service, Wyoming Sen. Michael Von Flatern has a bird’s eye view of the needs his state faces with regard to transportation.

CSG'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | notes

Planes, Trains & Automobiles As I write this, the United States Congress is debating long-overdue legislation on surface transportation. The House is advancing its American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, which would reauthorize transportation programs for five years, while the Senate is considering a two-year reauthorization bill. Additionally, a four-year FAA reauthorization bill gathered bipartisan support in both chambers and gained approval. The stakes are high for the states and localities and the needs are great. While “infrastructure” may be one of those words that cause eyes to immediately glaze over, for our states, it is the lifeblood of daily economic activity. It is difficult to predict with any certainty whether the House, Senate and White House will be able to reach agreement on transportation legislation, but it is clear that a coherent transportation policy, one that allows states to appropriately plan for the future, is needed. There are many good reasons we selected transportation as our hot topic in this issue. Transportation contributes 11 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, or approximately $950 billion. The average household in America spends almost 19 percent of its budget on transportation, more than food and health care combined, and second only to housing. The U.S. transportation system carries more than 4.7 trillion passenger miles and 3.7 trillion ton miles of domestic freight. Rail and maritime transportation each account for more than 11 percent of the tonnage carried. The system comprises 3.9 million miles of public roads. There are more than 120,000 miles of major railroads, more than 25,000 miles of commercially navigable waterways and more than 5,000 public use airports. The nation’s transportation system also includes more than 500 major urban public transit operations and more than 300 ports on the coasts, Great Lakes and inland waterways. When President Eisenhower initiated the Interstate Highway System, he saw it as vital to America’s defense. Today, while the system accounts for only 1 percent of all highway mileage, it carries 25 percent of the total vehicle miles of travel. It represents a partnership between the federal government and the states that has worked to grow the economy from coast to coast. While some of the recent federal stimulus went into improvements in infrastructure, the backlog of needed improvements is daunting. More than 26 percent of the nation’s bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Congestion on the nation’s roads is increasing and the cost is great. Americans spend 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic at a cost to the economy of $78.2 billion, or $710 per motorist. One-third of America’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 45 percent of major urban highways are congested. The American Society of Civil Engineers, in its most recent report card on America’s infrastructure, estimated an investment of $2.2 trillion over the next five years would be needed to address our nation’s transportation and infrastructure needs. Recently President Obama quoted President Reagan, who said, “The bridges and highways we fail to repair today will have to be rebuilt tomorrow at many times the cost.” Many states are addressing transportation challenges through innovation. Some are restructuring the way they levy gas taxes, while some are pursuing alternative means of financing improvements. Public-Private Partnerships, or P3s to use the new lingo, are being embraced by many states to expedite construction and shift the costs of highway and bridge projects. We discuss those solutions more fully in this issue.

Let us know what you think about the contents of this issue … just don’t text me while driving.

5 CAPITOL IDEAS

Finally, as the son of a state highway patrol officer, I can’t conclude without mentioning highway safety. Many states have moved to improve safety by addressing the issue of distracted driving and a federal agency has urged states to ban texting in vehicles. This issue provides an update on states’ actions in this arena. As for me, my resolution for the new year was to no longer text while driving. The best enforcer I have is my 10-year-old daughter watching from the back seat. She has a zero tolerance policy.

Very truly yours,

David Adkins

MAR / APR 2012

credits | CAPITOL IDEAS

publisher DAVID ADKINS

dadkins@csg.org

general manager KELLEY ARNOLD karnold@csg.org

staff writers HEATHER PERKINS

CSG Membership Coordinator hperkins@csg.org

KRISTA RINEHART

managing editor MARY BRANHAM

mbranham@csg.org

CSG National Leadership Center Coordinator krinehart@csg.org

associate editor JENNIFER GINN

contributing writers TIM ANDERSON

technical editor CHRIS PRYOR

graphic designers REBECCA FIELD

jginn@csg.org

cpryor@csg.org rfield@csg.org

JESSICA HUGHES jhughes@csg.org

CSG Midwest Publications Manager tanderson@csg.org

Mailing lists are available for rent upon approval of a sample mailing. Contact the sales department at (800) 800-1910. Copyright 2012 by The Council of State Governments. Periodicals postage paid at Lexington, Ky., and at additional mailing offices.

BRYDON ROSS

CSG Director of Energy and Environmental Policy bross@csg.org

SEAN SLONE

CHRIS PRYOR

cpryor@csg.org

CSG Senior Transportation Policy Analyst sslone@csg.org

KELSEY STAMPER

kstamper@csg.org

CAPITOL IDEAS, ISSN 2152-8489, MAR/APR 2012, Vol. 55, No. 2—Published bi-monthly by The Council of State Governments, 2760 Research Park Dr., Lexington, KY 40511-8482. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Council of State Governments nor the views of the editorial staff. Readers’ comments are welcome. Subscription rates: in the U.S., $42 per year. Single issues are available at $7 per copy. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Capitol Ideas, Sales Department, P.O. Box 11910, Lexington, KY 40578-1910. Periodicals postage paid at Lexington, Ky., and additional mailing offices.

email capitolideas@csg.org internet capitolideas.csg.org

The Council of State Governments president GOV. LUIS FORTUÑO, Puerto Rico | chair SENATE MAJORITY LEADER JAY SCOTT EMLER, Kansas vice chair SENATE PRESIDENT GARY STEVENS, Alaska | immediate past chair DEPUTY SPEAKER BOB GODFREY, Connecticut executive director/ceo DAVID ADKINS (dadkins@csg.org) | washington, d.c., director CHRIS WHATLEY (cwhatley@csg.org) east director WENDELL M. HANNAFORD (whannaford@csg.org) | south director COLLEEN COUSINEAU (fitzgerald@csg.org) midwest director MICHAEL H. McCABE (mmccabe@csg.org) | west director EDGAR RUIZ (eruiz@csg.org)

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

GOV. LUIS FORTUÑO PUERTO RICO CSG National President

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER JAY SCOTT EMLER KANSAS CSG National Chair

ASSEMBLYMAN JOHN S. WISNIEWSKI NEW JERSEY CSG East Co-Chair

SEN.  JIM WHELAN NEW JERSEY CSG East Co-Chair

HOUSE SPEAKER RICHARD THOMPSON WEST VIRGINIA CSG South Chair

REP. ARMOND BUDISH OHIO CSG Midwest Chair

REP. ROSIE BERGER WYOMING CSG West Chair 2007 Toll Fellow

TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES | they said it “Our transportation system is the lifeblood of our economy.” —Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, in her State of the State address, explaining that the system moves people to work and goods to market, and supports the tourism industry

“I really believe it really should be sacrosanct. We call it a Transportation Trust Fund for a reason.”

“... Bridges are not like trees; they do not grow stronger with age.” —Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, in his State of the State address, discussing the need to invest in the Maryland’s

—Maryland Sen. Robert Garagiola

aging infrastructure

in The Washington Post talking about a possible constitutional amendment to prevent the transfer of money out of transportation to cover shortfalls in the general fund

“I don’t think there is widespread public understanding that we have a road crisis.” —Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, in the Iowa Farmer Today,

“In order for us to build these (transportation) projects in our lifetime, we’ve got to do it in an untraditional way.” —Georgia State Transportation Board Member Sam Wellborn, as quoted in the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Ga., talking about the 12 regional

discussing the need for legislators to educate constituents

sales tax referendums taking place July 31 to fund

about the need for a motor fuel tax increase

transportation projects

train system to connect northern and southern California

MAR / APR 2012

quoted in the Sacramento Bee in February discussing the bullet

—Jim Earp, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, as

CAPITOL IDEAS

”I think the high-speed rail project is a game changer for California's economy down the road.”

regional roundup | EAST

DE • MA • MD • ME • NH • NJ • NY • PA • RI • VT • NB • NL • NS • ON • PE • PR • QC • VI

The East HOME SALES

WHOOPING COUGH

The number of single-family home sales in Massachusetts in December 2011 dropped 5 percent from the same month last year, The Boston Globe reported. Data provided by the Warren Group showed a 4.2 percent drop in the median sale price of singlefamily homes in December to $267,250, down from $279,000 in December 2010. The December decline marked the end of a five-month streak of yearover-year gains in the volume of single-family home sales.

Vermont schools are on alert this year after a substantial increase in the number of reported whooping cough cases. The Vermont Health Department recorded 91 cases of whooping cough in December 2011, five times the total of all cases reported in the state in 2010, according to the Burlington Free Press. The state Health Department has advised school officials to keep an eye out for the highly contagious illness.

SUPREME COURT New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced two nominations to the state’s Supreme Court in January. According to the Star Ledger of Newark, Christie nominated Phil Kwon and Bruce Harris to sit on the state’s highest court. Kwon, if confirmed, would be the first Asian-American to serve on the high court. Harris is the mayor of Chatham Borough. The two nominees would replace former Justice John Wallace and Justice Virginia Long, who faces mandatory retirement in March.

HIGHER EDUCATION FUNDING Rhode Island increased its higher education funding by almost 14 percent for the 2011-12 fiscal year, the largest increase by any state this year. Rhode Island will spend $193.6 million, WPRI of Providence reported. The increase can be attributed to the $30.2 million in stabilization funds the state received. Rhode Island is one of only five states to have federal stimulus money for higher education in its 2011-12 budget.

OVERTIME COSTS Overtime costs at state agencies in New York rose 4.5 percent in 2011, according to records from the state’s comptroller office. According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, overtime costs increased from $449 million to $469 million between 2010 and 2011. A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office suggested much of the overtime was incurred when the state was hit by tropical storms Irene and Lee last year.

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

learn more about these and other in the Eastern Region, visit:  Todevelopments capitolideas.csg.org and www.csgeast.org.

Governor Proposes Ban on Smoking In his Jan. 19 State of the State address, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a 2003 Toll Fellow, announced plans to make all state government campuses smoke-free in an effort to slow the ever-growing cost of health care for state employees. “It’s time to make all of our campuses, in their entirety, smokefree. Otherwise, we are facilitating behavior that is not only harmful to those who engage in it, but that we know, with certainty, will heavily burden future generations of taxpayers,” Markell said during his address. According to The News Journal of Wilmington, the state banned smoking inside workplaces with its Clean Indoor Air Act of 2002. Since its implementation, many of Delaware’s largest employers have moved to make their outdoor campuses smokefree. Some Delaware state facilities

already have smoke-free campuses. In 2007, the state Department of Health and Social Services made its mental health and nursing facility campuses smoke-free. The Delaware Technical Community College campus most recently went smoke-free on Jan. 1, The News Journal reported. The state already has a tobaccocessation program, DelaWELL, in place. According to the state’s Office of Management and Budget, 766 employees, retirees and their dependents participated in the program during the 2011 fiscal year. While the governor’s administration is working to change the tobacco policy, it is unclear if the Legislative Hall and state courthouses will be included in the ban. Because those are controlled by the other two branches of government, Markell’s ban may not apply, according to the governor’s spokesman, Brian Selander.

AL • AR • FL • GA • KY • LA • MO • MS • NC • OK • SC • TN • TX • VA • WV

SOUTH | regional roundup

The South

OBESITY TASK FORCE

EDUCATION FUNDING

Troubled by high rates of childhood obesity in South Carolina, physicians in the state are spearheading a new effort to address the problem and find potential solutions. The South Carolina Medical Association’s Childhood Obesity Task Force will provide a forum for physicians, researchers, school leaders and state health officials to develop a strategy to address childhood obesity. According to The State in Columbia, nearly 32 percent of South Carolina’s children are considered either obese or overweight. The national average is 28 percent.

Florida schools will receive a $1 billion increase in state funding for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Gov. Rick Scott, House Speaker Dean Cannon and state Sen. David Simmons, chair of the Senate K-12 Education Appropriations Committee, have agreed to the increase in the Florida Education Finance Program, according to The Florida Current. Reasons for the substantial increase include higher enrollment numbers, the end of federal stimulus dollars and low property tax revenues.

GREEN JOBS

New Oil and Gas Lease Sale Set for June 20 in New Orleans

DISABILITIES SETTLEMENT Virginia and the U.S. Justice Department have agreed to a 10-year, $2.1 billion settlement to close all but one state institution for the developmentally disabled and move thousands of patients into home settings. Virginia will spend $340.6 million to make the change and receive $935 million in federal assistance, The Washington Post reported.

MAR / APR 2012

learn more about these and other in the Southern Region, visit:  Todevelopments capitolideas.csg.org and www.slcatlanta.org.

ers to invest only in the leases they are most interested in developing. This is as a result of a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management finding, which indicated the lowest-priced leases experienced little exploration and drilling. The lease sale will be the second since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the last remaining sale scheduled in the 2007–12 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Natural Gas Leasing Program. According to The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, the U.S. Department of the Interior is finalizing plans for the 2012–17 program years, which will make more than 75 percent of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas estimated on the Outer Continental Shelf available for development. The plan is for 12 lease sales in the Gulf in those five years.

CAPITOL IDEAS

President Barack Obama announced a new oil and gas lease sale in the central Gulf of Mexico, scheduled for June 20 in New Orleans. The lease sale is set to include all unleased expanses off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, making approximately 38 million acres available. According to CNN, this region potentially can produce nearly 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Administration officials said they have created provisions in the lease sale to encourage development but still provide for the additional time necessary to fulfill more rigorous regulatory prerequisites in the deeper waters. In addition, the minimum bid was increased to $100 per acre for deepwater areas to encourage potential leasehold-

Green jobs are on the rise in Louisiana. The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reports that jobs related to the production of biofuels, wood pellets, coastal restoration, hydropower and wind turbines comprise 97,800 direct and support jobs that are part of the “green economy.” These jobs account for 5.3 percent of the state’s employment, according to a 2010 study led by LSU and the Louisiana Workforce Commission. The study estimates green jobs growth to reach 13.8 percent by 2020.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION West Virginia has begun a threeyear program aimed at solving the commonwealth’s childhood obesity problem. ActiveWV 2015 is modeled after the 2008 National Physical Activity Plan and encourages residents to engage in physical activity on a regular basis, The Charleston Gazette reported. West Virginia ranks in the top five in terms of people struggling with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and strokes. The program was launched during Physical Activity Day in January at the state capitol.

regional roundup | MIDWEST

IA • IL • IN • KS • MI • MN • NE • ND • OH • SD • WI • AB • MB • ON • SK

The Midwest

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

JOB CREATION

PROPOSED REPEALS

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced in January that the Governor’s Office of Economic Development helped create more than 3,000 jobs in 2011. Daugaard said the office helped 61 businesses either establish themselves or expand their operations in the state, The Associated Press reported. According to Daugaard and state Economic Development Commissioner J. Pat Costello, the agency provided grants to companies to help train workers, which increased their earning potential.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback in January announced a list of 51 state measures his administration is recommending be repealed, according to the Lawrence Journal-World. One of Brownback’s first acts as governor in 2011 created the Office of the Repealer—an office designed to recommend the repeal of laws considered to be “unreasonable, unduly burdensome, duplicative, onerous or in conflict.” Many of the statutes recommended for repeal are either outdated or superseded by federal law.

BALLOT INITIATIVES

TRAFFIC CAMERA BAN

The Michigan State Board of Canvassers in January approved the language of two ballot initiatives to amend the state’s constitution. The Detroit Free Press reported one initiative would raise the state’s renewable energy standard to 25 percent by 2025, while the other would legalize the use of marijuana. In order to get on the Nov. 6 ballot, backers of the two initiatives must each collect 322,609 signatures and file the petitions with the secretary of state before July 9.

Republican lawmakers in Iowa introduced bills in the House and Senate in January to ban red light and speed cameras, the Sioux City Journal reported. Gov. Terry Branstad indicated he would sign the ban if legislation is passed. The constitutionality of the cameras has been a topic of discussion in Iowa for the past several years. In 2008, the state’s Supreme Court ruled the cameras were constitutional in a case stemming from a dispute over cameras in Davenport.

ANIMAL FIGHTS Indiana lawmakers are pushing to strengthen the punishment for those convicted of attending animal fights, reported the Evansville Courier & Press. Senate Bill 11, which the Senate passed in January, would make the penalty for attending animal fights a felony punishable by six months to three years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Under current law, the penalty for attending animal fights is a misdemeanor for the first offense, with a second offense considered a felony.

learn more about these and other in the Midwestern Region, visit:  Todevelopments capitolideas.csg.org and www.csgmidwest.org.

Illinois Attorney General Sues Standard & Poor’s Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a 2000 Toll Fellow, filed a lawsuit in January against the financial services company Standard & Poor’s. In the lawsuit, Madigan alleges that Standard & Poor’s “compromised its independence as a ratings agency by doling out high ratings to unworthy, risky investments as a corporate strategy to increase its revenue and market share.” The lawsuit cites internal emails and conversations between Standard & Poor’s employees that demonstrate the company misrepresented its ratings, according to a press release from Madigan’s office. It also cites congressional testimony by a former Standard & Poor’s employee who revealed that “profits were running the show” leading up to the housing market crash. “S&P abandoned its principles and instead used every trick possible to give deals high ratings in order to retain clients and generate revenue,”

said Madigan. “The mortgage-backed securities that helped our market soar—and ultimately crash—could not have been purchased by most investors without S&P’s seal of approval.” The lawsuit is one part of the attorney general’s efforts to hold lenders accountable for their actions. During her time in office, Madigan has won large settlements against lenders. In 2008, she reached a $39.5 million settlement with Wells Fargo over misleading marketing of risky loans. That same year, Madigan led a lawsuit against Countrywide for its lending practices, which resulted in a nationwide $8.7 billion settlement. Madigan and the U.S. Department of Justice reached a $335 million settlement in December 2011 with Countrywide in a case alleging discrimination against Illinois borrowers of color. It is the largest settlement of a fair lending lawsuit ever obtained by a state attorney general, according to Madigan’s office.

WEST | regional roundup

AK • AZ • CA • CO • HI • ID • MT • NM • NV • OR • UT • WA • WY • AB • AS • BC • GU • MP

The West

CHLAMYDIA RATES

PROTESTOR RESTRICTIONS

The number of diagnosed chlamydia infections in Wyoming has risen considerably since 2007, according to a report released in January by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wyoming is ranked 26th overall, up from its 44th place ranking in 2007, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle of Cheyenne reported. The state Department of Health attributes the jump in rates to an improved screening process and low-cost testing becoming more available to citizens. The Department of Health offers vouchers for free STD testing on its website.

A special Arizona legislative panel voted in January to place new restrictions on those wanting to protest in front of the state capitol building. Bullhorns are banned and protestors without amplifiers can be stopped if they are determined to be “disruptive to the conduct of governmental business,” reported the East Valley Tribune of Tempe. Under the new provisions, groups wishing to hold events with any type of equipment must submit their application at least 10 days in advance.

HIGHER EDUCATION

New Mexico Governor Urges Legislature to Pass Anti-Corruption Measures

REDUCED CLASS SIZE The Utah Legislature is considering a bill to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, reported The Salt Lake Tribune. Sen. Karen Morgan introduced Senate Bill 31, which would cap the number of students in kindergarten classes at 18, at 20 in first grade, at 22 in second grade and at 24 in third grade. Under the proposal, schools that cannot meet the requirement could opt to hire teacher’s aides. Utah currently does not have any type of class size limit.

MAR / APR 2012

learn more about these and other in the Western Region, visit:  Todevelopments capitolideas.csg.org and www.csgwest.org.

their public pensions. A similar version of this legislation was passed in the House in 2011, but failed to come up for a vote in the Senate. Gentry also sponsored a bill that would prevent lawmakers from acting as lobbyists for two years after leaving the legislature. This proposal would mirror the requirement that Martinez already has in place for appointed members of her administration. The fourth proposal, sponsored by Sen. John Ryan, would prevent the use of state funds for public officials’ legal bills when the state seeks restitution and compensation for corrupt behavior by that public official, according to a press release issued by the governor’s office. “We are sending a message to any elected official or public employee who thinks they can get away with taking advantage of New Mexico taxpayers,” Gentry said during the press conference. Martinez added, “In a bipartisan way, we must send a message during this legislative session that corruption in New Mexico will not stand.”

CAPITOL IDEAS

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez at a press conference Jan. 22 encouraged state legislators to pass several anti-corruption measures during the 2012 session. Legislators have introduced four bills that aim to strengthen penalties for wrongdoers and better protect taxpayers from having to pay for the crimes of corrupt officials. “Public officials found guilty of engaging in corrupt activity should be immediately removed from office, lose their state pension and be prohibited from conducting any future business with the state,” said Martinez. A bill sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes and Rep. Zachary Cook would remove elected officials from office immediately upon conviction of public corruption, The Associated Press reported. A second measure, sponsored by Rep. Nate Gentry, would increase sentences for convictions of public corruption, prevent those convicted from conducting business with the state and require them to give up

University of Nevada Chancellor Dan Klaich presented a proposal to the state Board of Regents in January that would change the way funds are distributed to the state’s colleges and universities. Under the state’s current formula, money is distributed based on enrollment numbers and does not provide any performance incentives, according to The Associated Press. Klaich’s plan would allocate money based on factors such as cost per credit hour, size of school and number of graduates.

PRIMARY DATE Idaho Rep. Tom Loertscher introduced House Bill 392 in January that, if passed, would move the state’s primary election to August, according to The Associated Press. Idaho’s primary election is currently scheduled for May 15. The move is intended to shorten the general election campaigning process, as well as give the state’s elections officials extra time to prepare after a redistricting plan is finally put into place.

by the book | STATE TOLLS

TAKING THEIR TOLLS Tolling was once a strong feature in the portfolio for state transportation budgets. Florida remains the state with the most toll road miles, while New York has the most toll bridges, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology report, Transportation Statistics, 2010. According to the Office of Highway Policy Information, 2,973.5 miles of rural highways and roads are tolled as of Jan. 1, 2011, while 2,391.24 miles of urban roads were tolled.

Number of Toll Ferry Routes Massachusetts » 2

Tennessee » 1

Vermont » 4

Pennsylvania » 2

Texas » 1

Kentucky » 3

California » 1

Utah » 1

Maine » 15

Wisconsin » 6

Michigan » 13

Illinois » 5

Rhode Island » 3

Delaware » 1

Virginia » 1

New York » 10

Oregon » 5

Alabama » 2

Iowa » 1

North Carolina » 4

Maryland » 2

New Jersey » 1

Washington » 19

Connecticut » 6

Puerto Rico » 4

Alaska » 15

Ohio » 6

Missouri » 7

West Virginia » 1

, 2 tunnels, and 26 ferry routes. 2009), available at one facility or ferry route. These include 34 bridges -Roads-Tunnels-Ferries, (Washington, DC: August NOTE: Totals reflect crossings between states as Information, Toll Facilities in the United States: Bridges Policy y Highwa of Office stration, Admini y Highwa l Federa , rtation Transpo of SOURCE: U.S. Department www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/tollpage.htm.

States with the Most Toll Road Miles

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

12 Colorado 84

West Virginia 86.8

Kentucky 93.6

California 95.8

Maine 106.2

Massachusetts 138.2

New Hampshire 155.4

Indiana 156.8

Puerto Rico 216.3

STATE TOLLS | by the book

Number of Toll Bridges New York » 28

Louisiana » 3

Texas » 23

Washington » 3

New Jersey » 20

Indiana » 2

Pennsylvania » 15

Minnesota » 2

Florida » 14

Ohio » 2

California » 8

Oregon » 2

New Hampshire » 8

West Virginia » 2

Michigan » 6

Delaware » 1

Iowa » 5

Massachusetts » 1

Maryland » 5

Missouri » 1

Illinois » 4

North Dakota » 1

Nebraska » 4

Puerto Rico » 1

Virginia » 4

Rhode Island » 1

Alabama » 3

Vermont » 1

New York has 28 toll bridges. Bear Mountain Bridge—the oldest bridge operated by the New York State Bridge Authority—opened to the public Nov. 27, 1924. It was the first vehicular river crossing between New York City and Albany.

Counts multiple structures at a single facility as one bridge or tunnel; does not include bridges or tunnels that are part of roadway segments reported under Toll-road mileage.

Florida 685.8

Pennsylvania 533

New York 567.6

Oklahoma 595.5

New Jersey 359.9

Kansas 236

Ohio 241.2

Illinois 284.1

Texas 308

» MAR / APR 2012

Since 1935, The Council of State Governments’ The Book of the States has been the leading authority on information about the 50 states and territories. www.csg.org/bookofthestates

CAPITOL IDEAS

THE BOOK OF THE STATES

in the know | KEY ISSUES IN TRANSPORTATION

3 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TRANSPORTATION The latest extension of legislation authorizing federal surface transportation programs—the eighth since 2009—expires March 31. Two competing visions for a successor to the 2005 bill were on the table in late January—a five-year bill proposed by House Republicans and a two-year bipartisan bill approved last year by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Beyond the issue of whether Congress can reach some kind of agreement on either a compromise between the House and Senate versions or yet another extension of the 2005 bill, a number of other key issues are at stake in the debate.

SEAN SLONE SENIOR TRANSPORTATION POLICY ANALYST The Council of State Governments

1. One reason—besides money—for no agreement on a new transportation bill is the lack of a national vision and purpose for the federal program. In the middle of the 20th century, the Interstate Highway System produced a national rallying point as the American people were presented with a map of what it would look like when complete. Today, there is no map, no clearly defined vision and, in the years since the interstates were completed, the federal program has become more diffuse. That’s led some to question whether programs that lack a specific national purpose should be eliminated as the federal transportation program returns to more core national interests, such as managing and preserving existing assets, improving safety, ensuring the mobility of freight and tackling major projects that bring taxpayers the greatest return on their investment. States have an important role to play in helping to define a new national vision. » States to Watch: All of them 2. Capturing support for infrastructure investment may require localizing transportation. Defining in detail how states, localities and even individual commuters stand to benefit from specific transportation projects likely will be important in the years ahead. A lack of earmarks in federal legislation and what may be a reduced, or at best static, federal commitment to transportation may mean that state governments will be required to make the case for infrastructure projects and funding them at home. Some states already have a track record of success in winning support for things like local bond issues and dedicated taxes when they are tied to specific projects. » State to Watch: Georgia, where 12 regions around the state will vote on a sales tax increase later this year to fund infrastructure projects. (See pages 14–16 for more information.) 3. It’s increasingly important for states to move toward data-driven decision-making in transportation.

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

In an era of tighter state and federal funding for transportation and with a public skeptical of the need for more spending, new levels of accountability and transparency will be important in the years ahead. That may include the development of new performance measures and tools to perform cost-benefit analyses and measure return-on-investment from transportation projects and programs. A number of states are already moving forward to develop the goals, metrics and data collection programs needed. » States to Watch: Washington and California, which have long been leaders in measuring transportation performance.

FINANCING ALTERNATIVES | hot topic © Corbis/Adam Niklewicz

The Road to Prosperity As gas tax revenues decline—even as Americans are driving more—funding for the nation’s transportation system is decreasing. That leaves state policymakers facing the challenge of funding construction and upkeep of miles of roads and highways with an ever-dwindling budget. Across the country, states are considering innovative ways to ensure the nation’s transportation system is maintained to keep the United States competitive in a global economy. As U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says, “To compete for the jobs and industries of the future, America must out-innovate and out-build the rest of the world.”

15 CAPITOL IDEAS

» MAR / APR 2012

hot topic | FINANCING ALTERNATIVES

A Penny for Your Roads? Georgia Tries a Regional Sales Tax Increase to Fund Transportation Projects by Sean Slone

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

July 31 could be an important day for the future of transportation in Georgia—and perhaps the nation. That’s the day of the Georgia primary, when voters in the Peach State will head to the polls to decide whether to approve a 1-cent sales tax increase. Depending on whether they live in Atlanta, Columbus, Valdosta or Savannah, voters will make their decisions based on how they feel about a different list of carefully selected transportation projects for their region. The outcomes of the referenda in the state’s 12 regions could serve as a bellwether to other states looking for answers to their infrastructure needs and trying to move beyond the unsustainable gas tax as transportation revenue source. “The reason we’re doing this is the current funding mechanism for transportation is not adequate in Georgia to meet all the needs,” said Todd Long, director of planning for the Georgia Department of Transportation. “The gas tax is in trouble … for a couple of different reasons. One is you and I are driving more fuel-efficient cars, so the mileage per gallon of the average American is going up and up and up.” And gas tax revenues have started to go down.

Regional Option Sales Taxes

But to understand how Georgia arrived at the regional option sales tax to fund transportation projects, it’s necessary to look back more than a decade, according to Brad Alexander, a former chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. Alexander now works for one of the Atlanta-area consulting firms enlisted to make the case for the referendum to Georgia voters.

“We’ve known for a long time that our tax system is just sort of fundamentally broken in Georgia when it comes to raising funds to pay for transportation infrastructure,” he said in January at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. “And this sort of resulted in this annual tradition where the contracting community would come up to the Capitol at the beginning of every year and say ‘Gosh, we’re out of money. The roads are falling apart. This is terrible. Can’t you guys just vote to raise the gas tax?’ “It seemed readily apparent to the contracting community that that’s what ought to be done.” But year after year, the contracting community was unable to convince legislators concerned about re-election to raise the tax, Alexander said. “After about 10 years of trying this, we finally got a little bit smarter and decided that we were going to have to have a voter approval component,” he said, “because if we didn’t have a legislature that had the political courage to go raise taxes, we felt like we could at least take a shot at convincing the voters to do it.” In 2008, a coalition began coming together to push for legislation that would authorize a referendum vote. But setbacks and tough decisions lay ahead. “Probably the biggest mistake we made was we let our own coalition fracture,” Alexander said. “We had the contracting and consulting community over here on one side (in favor of a) statewide plan and the chambers of commerce and business community on the other side (in favor of a regional plan). And consequently, we were arguing with each other as much as we were with our opponents.”

FINANCING ALTERNATIVES | hot topic ATLANTA—The Atlanta region could generate more than $8 million through 2022 if voters approve a 1-cent sales tax hike to fund transportation projects, according to the Georgia Transportation Alliance. Learn more at www.connectgeorgia2012.com .

It wasn’t until 2010 when all the stars aligned. Then-Gov. Sonny Perdue, who had previously remained on the sidelines, got involved. The contractors and the business community came together behind legislation that benefitted from lessons learned about how the project selection process should go, how to sell rural lawmakers on the idea and other issues.

How It Works

17 CAPITOL IDEAS

» MAR / APR 2012

The General Assembly approved House Bill 277, the Georgia Transportation Investment Act, in the spring of 2010. It allows voters to decide whether to levy a 1 percent regional sales tax to fund a list of transportation projects over a 10-year period. Each of the state’s 12 regions established a Regional Transportation Roundtable—comprised of a county chair and one mayor from each county—which developed criteria for the selection of projects in consultation with Long. “We went through a very detailed process, spelled out in the bill, of project selection. And by October of last fall, … each of the 12 regions finally adopted their list of projects for the voters to consider,” Long said. If the referendum is approved in all the regions, up to $19 billion will be invested in the approved transportation projects. All the funds collected in a region will stay in that region; 75 percent will go to the approved regional projects and the other 25 percent will be used on local projects chosen by city and county officials. Atlanta, the state’s major population center, would receive the most— about 45 percent of total revenues. Now comes the hard part—convincing Georgians that it’s worth paying more when they shop to allow the state to tackle these projects in less time than it would take if they had to rely on federal dollars. Long said the message to voters is somewhat different in Atlanta and other population centers from the message in rural Georgia. “In the rural areas, it’s all about jobs, economic growth,” he said. “Particularly in southwest Georgia; they’re really hurting for jobs. … In the doughnut counties (around Atlanta) that have really experienced a lot of growth, … and some of the other regions like Savannah, Columbus, Augusta, they have congestion relief (needs) as well.” But Long and his colleagues at the Georgia Department of Transportation are not allowed to advocate for the referendum, so the job of doing that is now in the hands of people like Doug Callaway, executive director of the Georgia Transportation Alliance, an arm of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He oversees the statewide referendum campaign

hot topic | FINANCING ALTERNATIVES SAVANNAH—In the Central Savannah River Area, revenue projections from a 1-cent sales tax increase could generate $841,044,916 for transportation projects, according to the Georgia Transportation Alliance.

WASHINGTON called Connect Georgia, which includes a bipartisan group of veteran campaign strategists. “Someone a long time ago once said that status quo was Latin for ‘the mess we’re in,’” Callaway said. “Well almost every state’s in that same mess. The question is, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ And a lot of other states don’t have the same opportunity that Georgia does, so we hope to take full advantage of this and hope to be a model for a lot of our sister states.” Callaway cited a recent news article in which economists predicted Georgia’s employment would not rebound to prerecession levels until 2020. While that would be daunting news for most states, Georgia can see a light at the end of the tunnel. “At least we have an option to cast a vote in favor of ourselves later this year in order to help turn our economy around, help create jobs, help provide safe mobility for our citizens,” he said.

Challenges Ahead

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

The regional referenda still face challenges. The Georgia Tea Party has mobilized in opposition to the tax increase. But even outside the anti-tax crowd, some question whether the sales tax is really the right vehicle to fund infrastructure, arguing it’s not a true “user fee” in the tradition of the gas tax, which is paid only by those who actually use the roads. Long sees it a different way. “We’re paying a gas tax for our roads, but a lot of our money is going toward transit,” he said. “A sales tax is kind of universal. Everybody who buys something, that product

is using the transportation system to get there. So even a guy who doesn’t have a car, but he lives in a condo and he buys, let’s say, a TV. Well that TV got to his condo somehow or other. So he’s paying a fee partly for getting that product to the end market. That’s how I look at it.” Beyond the arguments over tax policy, another major hurdle may be when the vote is scheduled to take place—in the July primary rather than the November general election. “The issue with the date being July 31 is the arbitrary nature of the voter profile in a primary,” said Connect Georgia’s Heath Garrett. “It creates real disparities between certain regions, because some regions have a historically high voter turnout in primaries and others don’t, and some regions have more activity on other parts of the ballot than some do.” Still Garrett believes he and his colleagues have a strong case to make to Georgia voters. “The bottom line is that this is the single largest economic development opportunity in the state of Georgia’s history since the Atlanta airport opened,” he said. “It’s also potentially the largest combined economic development opportunity for any state in the country in the next year, when you talk about $19 billion in direct transportation investment. “And at the end of the day, this entire opportunity is about real job creation, not mythical job creation, both in the short term and the long term. It’s about road safety and repair. And it’s about local communities being able to control their transportation destiny locally.”

A task force has recommended raising the fuel tax 15 to 20 cents per gallon, increasing the gross vehicle weight fee for trucks by 10 percent, imposing $100 fees for electric vehicles, and adding a statewide motor vehicle excise tax and VMT tax.

CALIFORNIA California officials have proposed an increase in the state’s fuel tax.

Read more about these states’ recommendations at the Capitol Ideas website.

FINANCING ALTERNATIVES | hot topic

15 STATES TO WATCH NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to overhaul the state’s tax system, use public-private partnerships (P3s) to fix infrastructure and create an infrastructure fund.

MICHIGAN Gov. Rick Snyder proposed restructuring the state gas tax as a percentage of the price of fuel and allowing municipalities to raise vehicle-licensing fees. Sen. Howard Walker proposed repealing the state’s gas tax, but adding to the 6 percent sales tax.

PENNSYLVANIA Three House Democratic leaders have called for increasing driver fees, uncapping the wholesale tax on gasoline and increasing fines.

IOWA

NEW JERSEY Gov. Chris Christie wants to borrow several billion dollars to fund road and bridge projects.

An advisory commission has recommended raising registration fees for new vehicles from 5 to 6 percent, and establishing a new user fee for hybrid vehicles.

MARYLAND Gov. Martin O’Malley has proposed a 6 percent sales tax on gasoline to pay for infrastructure projects.

COLORADO Colorado officials are considering asking voters to raise the state’s fuel tax.

MISSOURI

VIRGINIA

Missouri policymakers are exploring doubling the state’s fuel tax.

The state has created an office of public-private partnerships, revamped the state infrastructure bank and used audits to turn up unused transportation funds.

OKLAHOMA Gov. Mary Fallin is asking the legislature to increase state revenue for road and bridge repairs by $15 million a year and to raise the road and bridge maintenance cap for the eight-year period.

GEORGIA ARKANSAS Voters will consider a constitutional amendment to raise the state’s sales tax to fund a $1.8 billion program to connect the state with four-lane highways.

Policymakers will seek a series of regional referenda to fund transportation projects with a 1 percent sales tax.

» MAR / APR 2012

The state Department of Transportation wants to expand the use of toll roads to fund new road or bridge projects or add tolled express lanes to some major highways.

CAPITOL IDEAS

FLORIDA

hot topic | FINANCING AVIATION

Aviation Projects Up in the Air FAA Funding Reauthorization Will Allow States to Plan Long-Term

Illinois Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider is frustrated. Like many other heads of state transportation agencies, Schneider is trying to manage a billion dollar budget and thousands of employees with no long-term strategic financial guidance. It’s not just the gridlock over a surface transportation reauthorization bill that’s causing her frustrations, it’s also the gridlock over air transport. Illinois has nearly 900 aviation landing facilities. The state has committed more than $250 million in funding for 165 airport project agreements to improve runways, taxiways, parking facilities and terminals between January 2009 and December 2011. But that commitment to aviation improvements hasn’t been easy: The Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill—which provides policy guidance, collects aviation trust fund revenues and finances airport improvements—has endured more than 20 temporary extensions since Congress passed the last comprehensive bill in 2007. Congress finally passed a $63.4 billion, four-year reauthorization bill in early February. Schneider said the absence of multi-year federal guidance in the form of full reauthorization delayed needed improvements. “It’s unfortunate because it really makes it difficult for the states to plan,” Schneider said. While gridlock is the norm in Washington, the differences between the competing House and Senate versions of the FAA reauthorization were particularly acute. Disagreements abounded over authorized funding levels, policy disputes over easing unionization rules for rail and aviation workers, creating new takeoff and landing slots at Reagan National Airport, and the effectiveness of subsidizing smaller and remote airports through the Essential Air Service program. The final bill partially rolled back regulatory changes that had made it easier for unionization and set aside $190 million annually to subsidize airline service for rural communities.

MAR / APR 2012

CAPITOL IDEAS

by Brydon Ross

Addressing Gridlock AIRPORT CONSTRUCTION PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.—Community leaders across the country have been anxiously awaiting reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration funding bill to firm up plans. In August, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, of California, center, Palm Springs mayor pro tem Lee Weigel, right, and council member Ginny Foat discussed the construction of the new air traffic control tower at the Palm Springs International Airport. © AP Photo/The Desert Sun, Jay Calderon

IMMIGRATION LAW PROTESTS While transportation leaders PHOENIX—Protesters across the country have last February gathered maintained their commitment to airports and air travel dent Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, outside the Sand despite the lack of a reauthorization to help guide plan-of Arizona’s co in Phoenix. Pearce, the sponsor ning decisions, that gridlock made it difficult. Bill 1070, was recalled in November. The prot Schneider, one of only six women lead state Brewer’to s plan to countersue the federal gover departments of transportation, said Illinois © AP dealt Photo/Matt York migration laws.has with the unpredictable nature of short-term reautho-

» MAR / APR 2012

as NextGen, could provide added safety benefits, reduce travel delays and save more than 1 billion gallons of jet fuel, based on FAA’s estimates, while keeping up with growing passenger demand. While airlines and the FAA will pay for NextGen, states could use Airport Improvement Project grant funds to purchase new tower equipment once the program gets off the ground. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that from October 2010 through October 2011, U.S. airlines carried their largest number of passengers since 2008. According to the U.S. Travel Association, simply reducing delays in air travel could add $17 billion in travel spending and support an additional 155,000 jobs in lodging, food services, amusement, recreation and retail sectors of the economy. Lieutenant governors and stateappointed delegates, through the Aerospace States Association, have been among the earliest champions of NextGen and have been highly involved in the multi-agency review effort at the Department of Transportation. The major stumbling block to implementation, however, is funding. Retrofitting a plane with NextGen avionics can run upward of $500,000, in addition to the significant cost to update control towers with new technology. The funding is a key part of the FAA reauthorization bill. In the new bill, Congress allotted $11 billion toward modernizing the air traffic system and a provision was included that offers loan guarantees for airlines to help pay for modernization equipment in airplanes. It also set a deadline of June 2015 for the FAA to develop new procedures at the nation’s 35 busiest airports to accommodate planes using GPS navigation. The new procedures will allow planes to take off and land closer together because pilots will know the precise location of objects and other planes using GPS. Congressional approval for that reauthorization is good news for states looking for long-term guidance. “Transportation in Illinois is at a crossroads,” Schneider said. “I think there are some exciting times ahead, but we really have to work hard now to change how we look at transportation and transportation solutions.”

CAPITOL IDEAS

rizations through the creation of “innovation teams,” which encourage creative thinking for traditional improvement projects to capture additional cost savings and environmental benefits. In addition, Schneider said other states could use Gov. Pat Quinn’s Illinois Jobs Now proposal as a template to ensure growth for their airport facilities. Under the program, the state provided $380 million for airport improvements to match federal dollars and provided additional dedicated funds for important airport improvement projects that may not necessarily qualify for FAA funds. But even those projects that qualify for FAA funding come with uncertainty. The two-week shutdown of the FAA in August 2011 created a $1 billion hole in baggage collection fees for local airports and temporarily halted work on 200 airport improvement projects, according to the North American Branch of the Airports Council International. States, localities and industries that rely on air travel have been kept in limbo without certainty that future projects can be built. Airport directors around the country have said for some time that uncertainty over FAA funding—particularly the Airport Improvement Program that helps finance expansion programs—created disruptions to airport construction projects. “A lack of an FAA funding bill has forced some contractors to adjust their timelines for those projects and, in doing so, caused them to miss out on the prime construction season when the weather was good,” Victor Bird, director of the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission, noted in State Aviation Journal. Nationwide, the impact of airports and air travel is tremendous, with more than 11 million jobs tied to commercial and general aviation. The aviation industry and airports contribute more than $1 trillion a year in economic activity, according to Airlines for America, the airline industry’s trade association. y around then-Arizona Senate PresiLooking Ahead dra Day O’Connor Federal Courthouse Economic and other benefits can be found ontroversial immigration law, Senate the air-traffic control testers voicedthrough oppositionmodernizing to Gov. Jan system by converting ground-based radar rnment for failing to enforce imsystems in control towers to GPS. This Next Generation Air Transportation System, known

FINANCING AVIATION | hot topic

10 questions | RAY LAHOOD

TO CREATE JOBS & GROW ECONOMY »

The Road to Recovery

Begins with Transportation by Mary Branham © Steven G. Smith / Corbis © AP Photo/Richard Drew

What are your priorities in reauthorization of the federal transportation bill? “The reauthorization proposal should support (the Department of Transportation’s) five long-term goals—improving safety, economic competitiveness, livability, environmental sustainability and state of good repair. DOT plans to reach these goals in a number of ways. First, we will work to strengthen our transportation systems by building a national high-speed rail network, rebuilding our roads and bridges and investing in accessible, affordable transit. We will support innovation through the creation of an infrastructure bank and competitive programs that promote systematic reforms and innovative projects. We will work to ensure safety by reducing roadway crashes, providing the Federal Transit Administration with transit safety authority, and strengthening truck and bus oversight. And finally, we will continue to cut red tape by consolidating the highway program, accelerating project delivery, and measuring the performance of our transportation system and investments.”

What are some promising things on the state level that have been good for transportation in the U.S.?

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

“We have seen a good deal of innovation at the state and local level, including greater utilization of financing tools for large projects, such as Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA, loans and loan guarantees; increasing partnership with neighboring jurisdictions, the private sector and the philanthropic community; and deployment of Intelligent Transportation System technology and operational improvements to get greater capacity out of existing systems.”

What do you see as the successes and lessons learned from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? “The Recovery Act, the most significant public works program since President Roosevelt’s New Deal, financed almost 15,000 transportation projects that were included in every state of the union and improved 40,000 miles of roadways. At the U.S. Department of Transportation, we learned through the Recovery Act that we could get money out the door quickly, without cutting corners and with a greater degree of transparency. The agencies within DOT also learned to work better together.”

What’s the best way to identify the most “shovel-worthy” projects? “This is a question that every area must answer for itself based on local needs. At DOT, we are looking for projects that support our long-term goals of improving safety, economic competitiveness, livability, environmental sustainability and state of good repair—as well as our nearer-term goal of job creation.”

Given the unsustainable nature of the gas tax, where do you see the needed revenues for infrastructure coming from? “The administration is committed to working with the Congress on a bipartisan basis to ensure that the president’s proposal will be paid for fully without increasing the deficit. But as the president said in his State of the Union address, … we should take the money we’re saving by winding down our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the other half on a six-year transportation bill that lets American workers do some nationbuilding right here at home.”

RAY LAHOOD | 10 questions

As the country pulls out of recession, many believe investment in infrastructure will help the U.S. economy now. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood believes it also will be a key to a stronger economy in the future. the full interview with Ray LaHood at capitolideas.csg.org.  Read

What’s the best way to emphasize the impact of infrastructure on economic development?

Why is high-speed rail the key when the projects haven’t taken off as anticipated?

“By 2050, the United States will be home to 100 million additional people, the equivalent of another California, Texas, New York and Florida. If we settle for the status quo, our next generation of entrepreneurs will find America’s arteries of commerce impassibly clogged and our families and neighbors will fight paralyzing congestion. … Strengthening our transportation systems creates jobs and grows our economy, all while helping us meet the 21st century challenges of improving the environment, making our communities more livable and enhancing safety.”

Why do you think sustainable communities should continue to be a focus?

“High-speed rail is a game changer for U.S. transportation. It’s important to this administration, it’s important to me personally, and most of all, it’s important to the American people, whose representatives have submitted more than 500 applications requesting $75 billion to build high-speed rail projects—all since 2009. But game changers aren’t built overnight. We spent decades building the interstate system that we have today, and it is the envy of the world. It never could have happened if the program had been given only a few years to reach completion. During the last three years, we’ve put American workers on rail job sites in 32 states and the District of Columbia. … At the same time, we’re supporting jobs at manufacturing plants in industrial states like Indiana—and at suppliers in states like Arizona and Arkansas.”

“Sustainable communities are ones that offer their residents transportation choices, housing options and necessities close to home. Transportation costs are lower in these communities and can save American families thousands of dollars a year in reduced transportation costs. … Sustainable communities also save the taxpayer money by focusing economic development where there is underutilized infrastructure.”

What is your advice to state government officials about working with your department to deliver important projects and meet the nation’s transportation needs?

» MAR / APR 2012

“Our blueprint for building high-speed rail is the same as America’s blueprint for building the Interstate Highway System. A half-century ago, when the United States first started going from planning to paving, we didn’t know where all the routes were going to be drawn on the map and we didn’t know where every last penny of funding was going to come from. But President Eisenhower set a goal. Through 10 administrations and 28 sessions of Congress, we got it done. And we didn’t just invest when times were good. We have a proud history of investing when times were tough. Through boom years and bust years—through eight recessions—we built the best roadways in the world.”

23 CAPITOL IDEAS

Does a national rallying point or vision exist in the 21st century?

“This is no ordinary time. When President Obama took the oath of office, we were facing major economic challenges, the worst recession since the Great Depression. The impact was felt around every kitchen and boardroom table, in every home and every business, in every neighborhood and community. It is vitally important for the department to work with state and local governments while we reimagine and rebuild America’s transportation system.”

CSG’s State Leaders’ Guide to Transportation Transportation Resources Sean Slone Recommends » American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO): www.transportation.org » AASHTO Daily Transportation Update: news.transportation.org/daily_update.aspx » AASHTO Journal Weekly Transportation Report: www.aashtojournal.org » Transportation Research Board: www.trb.org » E-Newsletter: www.trb.org/Publications/PubsTRBENewsletter.aspx » U.S. Department of Transportation: www.dot.gov » Fastlane—The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation: fastlane.dot.gov

Essential Reading » Infrastructure USA: The Infra Blog: www.infrastructureusa.org/category/blog

Sean Slone has been with CSG since 2006. In addition to staffing CSG’s Transportation Policy Task Force, Sean provides guidance SLONE for CSG’s transportation policy development and analysis efforts, helps to identify trends affecting transportation policy, and develops publications and meeting agendas on transportation issues.

» The Journal of Commerce: www.joc.com » Politico Morning Transportation: www.politico.com/morningtransportation » Progressive Railroading Daily News: www.progressiverailroading.com/prdailynews » Reason Foundation: Surface Transportation Innovations Newsletter: reason.org/newsletters/stinnovations » Streetsblog: dc.streetsblog.org » Transportation Issues Daily: www.transportationissuesdaily.com/ » Transportation Nation: transportationnation.org

Read about transportation issues at www.csg.org/transportation. Read Sean Slone’s blog at knowledgecenter.csg.org. Learn more through States Perform, CSG’s database that provides access to customizable and comparative state performance information, at www.statesperform.org.

» The Transport Politic: www.thetransportpolitic.com

www.csg.org/transportation

GIS Leads to Better Understanding Geographic information system (GIS) technology has long been a powerful tool in state government. Across the country, states are using the technology in many core business processes. Increasingly, state leaders are using it to make better policy decisions and provide transparency, accountability and citizen engagement. At a glance, GIS gives leaders the information they need to make good decisions about complicated issues. It also shows citizens how government is tackling tough problems and creating solutions. Some states are even using it to allow citizens to participate in finding the solutions. Governors like Martin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley in Maryland are leading the way forward, using GIS to improve how government works and communicating that progress to the public. Marylandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance measurement program StateStat gathers state leaders together with agency staff on a regular basis to discuss how agencies are doing. Leaders assess whether agencies are meeting goals and work with them to remove roadblocks. Maps are often core to these conversations. Externally, the state uses public-facing maps for initiatives

like GreenPrint and PlanMaryland to show citizens conservation and planning information and give them a way to point out places that matter to them. During redistricting last year, Utah used GIS to enhance decision making and communication with citizens. Like most states, Utah has used GIS internally for years to improve workflows, operations, and services. It used the same GIS technology to bring more transparency to the redistricting process. A dynamic map allowed residents to evaluate the landscape and propose new district boundaries. Utahns submitted close to 400 complete redistricting plans for consideration by the redistricting committee. In Georgia, the Department of Community Affairs uses a Web mapping application to deliver a detailed view of issues to its decision makers. Fact-based analysis allows leaders to understand the factors at play in communities across the state, from persistent poverty to emergency response. In every state, leaders need tools that allow them to effectively serve constituents. GIS provides a simple way to understand pressing issues and the people that leaders serve.

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

MARYLAND Maryland Holds Agencies Accountable, Engages Citizens In Maryland, GIS is a key component of Governor Martin O’Malley’s StateStat initiative, which provides a way to measure the performance of state agencies. ”Governor O’Malley has made StateStat an integral part of how he manages the state,” said Barney Krucoff, Maryland’s geographic information officer. StateStat combines maps, reports, and other information from 14 state agencies, ranging from the Departments of Agriculture and Transportation to Juvenile Services to Labor, Licensing and Regulation. ”Part of how agencies are held accountable is GIS information,” Krucoff said. ”Where are the permits? Where are the crimes? Where are the pollution and mitigation efforts? O’Malley uses GIS to understand what his agencies are doing and how effective those policies are. He also tried, whenever possible, to make the same information available to the public so the public can do the same.” Another key state initiative, GreenPrint, uses a map to show policy makers and residents alike what lands are protected, particularly in the ecologically sensitive Chesapeake Bay area, and what lands are targeted for protection in the future. A mirror image of that map, said Krucoff, is one called GrowthPrint, which shows the areas of the state targeted for economic development.

Maryland is projecting substantial growth by 2035. GIS is helping leaders prepare for an additional 1,000,000 residents, 500,000 new households, and 600,000 new jobs. The state created PlanMaryland, a comprehensive plan to address issues that arise with increased population. Leaders encouraged citizens to share their thoughts and ideas through an interactive map, and citizens could then explain why areas are important to them, prioritize places and offer comments. ”Many institutions—including local governments—have leading roles in the development process,” Krucoff said. ”The governor has used GIS to demonstrate a rational approach that promotes economic development while minimizing infrastructure and environmental costs.” Krucoff said one of the more popular maps on the Maryland website is OSPREY, from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, which received a high number of hits when Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee came through the area. Also popular is the broadband map, which allows users to put in an address and see who offers broadband services in that area. ”I think that more and more, citizens will expect this information to be readily available in map form,” he said.

As Maryland prepares for growth, a dynamic map allowed citizens to identify places that are important to them for consideration in the planning process.

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

UTAH Utah Redistricting Gives Power to the People While many states use GIS in their redistricting process, Utah officials took it a step further this year to give Utahns the opportunity to get involved. ”The state contracted with Esri to set up an online redistricting tool that allowed anyone to register, draw a redistricting plan, and submit it for consideration by the state redistricting committee,” said John Cannon, managing policy analyst for Utah’s Office of Legislative Research Council and General Counsel. Any plan submitted by the public would be posted on the Redistrict Utah website along with plans proposed by committee members and legislators. ”They were posted in a dynamic fashion, where people could zoom in and out and pan around the state and look at whatever level of geography they wanted to look at,” Cannon said. Citizens submitted approximately 400 complete redistricting plans that fell into one of the four categories for redrawing

lines—U.S. congressional and state House, Senate, and school board districts. These maps had to adhere to the same strict standards as the redistricting committee’s proposed plans. ”If they were going to draw a state House plan, they had to draw the entire state, including all 75 districts,” Cannon said, ”and they had to be within the population deviations the legislature established.” When the legislative redistricting committee held public hearings around the state, citizens in attendance could present the plans they submitted online. These plans were pulled up and displayed at the request of the individuals that drew the maps. The committee held public hearings around the state and in the capital. The legislature adopted a state school board map largely based on a citizen-generated map. ”The GIS application got a lot of folks involved and generated substantial input into the redistricting process,” Cannon said.

Utah’s redistricting map empowered residents to propose new boundaries.

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

GEORGIA Georgia Community Affairs Develops Strong Plans Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs has the important job of leading the state’s community development, economic development and housing programs. It uses GIS to help local, regional and state planners, as well as legislators, access rich information about the areas they serve. With GIS, leaders can view economic indicators such as poverty levels so they can discover, study and analyze facts about communities and legislative districts. They can also see detailed demographic, health, economic and business data. Creating data-rich maps quickly and easily helps decision makers understand the factors at play in their communities and shows residents how they are working to resolve issues that affect their neighborhoods. For example, stakeholders can see how conservation initiatives and development pressures are weighed in the planning process. When tornadoes struck the state in April 2011, GIS provided a way to examine population, housing and business along each tornado track, which helped field response A map showing vacant housing units helps leaders understand where economic stress is most acute. teams create recovery efforts. The department is also using the technology in many other ways, from studying the areas around Jackson, director of mapping at the Georgia Department of ComEnvironmental Protection Agency-regulated sites to scormunity Affairs. ”The average person can easily use a map to analyze ing development threats to archaeological sites. the areas and issues they are interested in.” ”GIS is now accessible to everyone, not just specialists,” said Terry

Test one of your public policy ideas—no experience necessary. Simply tap into the wealth of economic, demographic and business information on the citizens you serve with a free trial of Esri's Community Analyst at esri.com/ca30daytrial

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

ROAD SAFETY | hot topic

DRV NOW, TXT L8R

Many States Ban Cell Phone Use for Drivers, But Are the Roads Safer?

by Jennifer Ginn

MAR / APR 2012

Washington was the first state to pass a texting ban, which was coupled with a ban on hand-held cell phones. The legislation

havior. You might see the phone in the seat of the car, but you don’t know if that phone was connected to that erratic behavior.” Capt. Jason Berry, head of government and media relations for the Washington State Patrol, said as people become more aware of the texting ban, they’re holding their cell phones down lower in the car to avoid detection, which keeps their eyes off the road even longer. “I definitely feel that while it’s inherently dangerous to text (and drive) period, I think it’s even more so if your eyes drift downward,” Berry said. “… You’re losing all view of what’s in front of you.” Berry said making the texting ban a primary offense has made it easier to enforce. In 2009, the State Patrol ticketed 654 people for texting while driving. In 2010, when the law went to primary enforcement, that number jumped to 1,010. From January to November of 2011, more than 1,400 drivers were cited. Kevin Nursick, spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said texting bans can be enforced. Begin-

Enforcing the Bans

passed in 2007 and took effect in 2008. Although it originally was a secondary offense, texting while driving became a primary offense in 2010. Although the state had no hard data on how big a problem texting was, almost everyone could say they had been hit or were nearly hit by someone driving while distracted, Washington Rep. Judy Clibborn, chair of the Transportation Committee, said. “We have the largest ferry fleet in the nation,” Clibborn said. “People were talking on cell phones and loading onto the ferries. … The workers from the ferries came and said, ‘We can’t get people to pay attention to what we’re trying to tell them.’” The Washington State Patrol quickly found out, Clibborn said, that enforcement of the state’s tough new law would be a big challenge. “You can stop someone, but they don’t have to give you their phone,” Clibborn said, noting that police need a warrant to examine a driver’s phone. “You have to see them (texting). You might see erratic be-

CAPITOL IDEAS

Imagine a person is driving down a highway at 55 miles per hour. Then she drives the length of a football field without looking at the road. That happens every day when drivers send or read a text message behind the wheel. A U.S. Department of Transportation study found texting drivers were 23 times more likely to be involved in a near-crash or crash than those drivers who aren’t texting. As texting becomes more ubiquitous, especially among young drivers, states have responded by passing bans. Thirty-five states ban texting for all drivers, and seven more ban texting only for beginning drivers. Although states may be banning texting, two questions come to mind. Do these bans work and can they be enforced? The answers aren’t so clear-cut.

hot topic | ROAD SAFETY Cell Phone and Texting Laws Talking on a hand-held cell phone while driving is illegal in 10 states and the District of Columbia. 30 states and the District of Columbia ban new drivers from using cell phones. School bus drivers in 19 states and the District of Columbia are restricted from using all cell phones. 35 states and the District of Columbia ban text messaging for all drivers. New drivers in seven states cannot text message. Three states ban text messaging by school bus drivers.

ning in 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began a pilot project in Connecticut and New York to see if high-visibility enforcement programs would prevent drivers from using hand-held cell phones and texting. After the enforcement in Hartford, observers saw a 57 percent drop in the number of drivers seen using a hand-held cell phones. The percentage of drivers seen manipulating phones, either texting or dialing, also dropped from 3.9 percent to 1.1 percent. Nursick said Connecticut State Police and local Hartford police departments would place plain-clothes officers in hightraffic areas to look for people they saw using a cell phone. The officer would radio ahead to a uniformed officer, who pulls the driver over and issues a ticket. “It’s definitely enforceable,” Nursick said. “Lord knows you can’t be there every day, all the time, but it’s a pattern of doing it and getting the message across that this (texting) is not going to be tolerated. …

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

NO TEXTING PLEDGE HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.—Thirty-five states ban texting on cell phones, while 10 states ban the use of a handheld device. In New Jersey last year, students pledged not to text and drive by leaving a thumbprint in a poster during a safe driving workshop at Atlantic County Institute of Technology in Hamilton Township. ©AP Photo/The Press of Atlantic City, Michael Ein

I think it’s more enforceable than people actually suspect.”

Changing Behavior

Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said so far, there has been no evidence to show that restrictions on cell phones in cars actually make driving safer. The institute has conducted two studies: One looked at the effect of a hand-held cell phone ban and the other looked at texting laws in four states. “We saw no effect on crashes in states that had hand-held bans relative to those that didn’t,” Rader said. As for the texting bans, “in three of those four states, we actually saw slight increases in crashes relative to states that didn’t have laws.” Despite the lack of an immediate impact of texting and cell phone bans, Clibborn said such laws lay the foundation of what is acceptable for the next generation of drivers. “I think people need to start thinking about what they’re doing in the car,” she

said. “This is the way of getting to the next generation. This (texting) is their whole way of life. … It seems to me you don’t go into it with a huge punitive attitude. You come into it saying, ‘It makes sense. This is a sensible thing to not drive distracted.’” Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, said states must figure out how to reliably and consistently enforce texting bans, which can be difficult in this era of budget cuts. “Pass a tough law, go out and enforce it, educate the public about the enforcement,” she said. “Passing a bill without enforcement is not going to have much effect.” Rader reminded legislators this isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that states have struggled with making driving safer. “Cell phones have become the symbol of distracted driving, but they are not the only thing that causes distractions and leads to crashes,” Rader said. “Distracted driving is nothing new. Distracted driving has been around since driving was invented. We just keep inventing new ways to be distracted.”

“I think people need to start thinking about what they’re doing in the car. This is the way of getting to the next generation. This (texting) is their whole way of life.” —Washington Rep. Judy Clibborn

ROAD SAFETY | hot topic

State Safety Scorecard Seat Belts and Helmets Drinking and Driving All 50 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some sort of ignition Interlock legislation; 15 states have made ignition interlocks mandatory or highly incentivized for all convicted drunken driving, even first-time offenders. 42 states, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands all have some type of administrative license suspension on first offense. 48 states, the District of Columbia and Guam have increased penalties for drunken drivers found guilty of driving with a high BAC (often .15 or higher). 38 states, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands conduct sobriety checkpoints. Sobriety checkpoints are illegal under the state constitution in five states, while Texas prohibits them based on its interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

Child Passenger Safety Laws All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands require child safety seats for infants and children fitting specific criteria.

New Hampshire has not enacted a primary or a secondary seat belt law for adults, although the state does have a primary child passenger safety law that covers all drivers and passengers under 18. 47 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have a helmet law for motorcyclists. © Corbis/Janusz Kapusta 20 states, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have a universal helmet law, requiring helmets for all riders, while 27 states and Guam require helmets for specific riders

Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire do not have a motorcycle helmet law.

Graduated Driver’s Licensing Laws 30 states and the District of Columbia ban all cell phone use by novice drivers in the graduated driver’s licensing system. Novice drivers are those who are in the learning stage and can only drive while supervised. 48 states and the District of Columbia restrict nighttime driving during the intermediate stage in the system. In the intermediate stage, unsupervised driving is limited in high-risk situations. 45 states and the District of Columbia restrict the number of passengers during the intermediate stage. Only New Jersey requires those under age 21 without fullprivilege licenses to display a decal on their vehicle identifying them as new drivers.

» Source: Governors Highway Safety Association, www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/index.html

MAR / APR 2012

Five states—California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York—require seat belts for school buses, while Texas requires them on buses purchased after September 2010.

17 states have secondary laws. In many of these states, the law is primary for younger drivers and/or passengers. Secondary laws require a primary traffic violation for an officer to cite a driver for nonuse of a seat belt.

CAPITOL IDEAS

47 states and the District of Columbia require booster seats or other appropriate devices for children who have outgrown their child safety seats, but who are still too small to use an adult seat belt safely. Only Arizona, Florida and South Dakota do not have booster seat laws.

32 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have primary seat belt laws. These laws allow law enforcement officers to ticket a driver for not wearing a seat belt without citation for any other traffic violation.

hot topic | STATE LICENSE PLATES

THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL License Plates Do More than Tag Cars; They Can Say a lot about a State Every car, motorcycle and farm truck has one, but who really pays attention to the beauty of license plates? Gus Oliver, that’s who. Oliver, an Oklahoma resident, is coordinator of the Best License Plate Award for the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association. The 3,000-member association has recognized the best-designed new license plate each year since 1970. “Our organization decided states should be recognized for basically doing a good job designing their license plates,” Oliver said. “… We really collect something that was never intended to be collected. They (license plates) really are a historical artifact.”

by Jennifer Ginn

About 40 years ago, two events led states to change from plain, utilitarian license plates to the more decorative ones seen today. In the 1960s, the federal government mandated states to make license plates reflective, which led to the development of new technologies that allow the decoration of plate backgrounds. Then, leading up to 1976, states began doing more graphic-heavy license plates to commemorate America’s bicentennial. “That was the genesis of graphical license plates,” Oliver said. “Different states have gone to different degrees of graphical plates.” Here then, are some of the good, the bad and the ugly in the world of state license plates.

FLORIDA Fundraising Through Plates The 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger shortly after launch sparked the idea of using license plates to raise funds for organizations. “The other groups in Florida and groups in other states started adopting specialty tags as a way of raising money,” Oliver said. In the 2010-11 fiscal year, Floridians spent $32 million on more than 1.4 million specialty plates. Graphics Add Character “Florida has some nice graphic (plates),” Oliver said. “The Save the Dolphins plate is absolutely gorgeous.” No argument from Florida: “Save the Dolphins is a pretty one,” agreed Courtney Heidelberg, communications director for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

MARYLAND Maryland is no stranger to specialty plates. Buel Young, spokesman for the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, said the state has more than 900 specialty plates. One reason: The state requires just 25 orders of a new plate before producing it. Florida, on the other hand, requires 1,000 presold plates before production.

Sticking to the Basics Although it has quite a few fundraising specialty plates, Maryland’s tags are fairly basic. They have a white background with the logo or the organization to the left. Young said one plate that’s been a hit is the Baltimore Ravens license plates. It benefits the Ravens All Community Team Foundation, which provides support to various Baltimore nonprofit organizations.

Commemorating the War of 1812

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

Maryland’s new standard issue plate is a commemorative for the War of 1812. Maryland keeps all its license plates, including this one, fairly basic. “It’s to keep them as convenient to produce and as cost efficient to produce (as possible) so it doesn’t become burdensome,” said Young.

Some Color The state does have a few graphics-heavy plates. An agricultural one has plenty of color. “The farming one and a few others are attractive,” Oliver said.

STATE LICENSE PLATES | hot topic

OKLAHOMA Readability Matters Too OK, so not all license plates can be stunning. Take Oklahoma’s National Weather Service license plate, for instance. “It has the dark, ominous sky,” Oliver said. “It has dark blue letters on this dark sky. It is virtually unreadable from almost any distance. I have no idea how it got approved. I have bought several of those just on the expectation it is going to be redesigned to eliminate that situation.” Readability, Oliver said, is just as important as looks when it comes to license plates.

VIRGINIA More than 200 plates are available in Virginia, and some of them are graphic-heavy, said Melanie Stokes, spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. The subjects range from celebrating the Chesapeake Bay and the Appalachian Trail, to the Free Tibet and the Parrothead plates.

Scenic Virginia Mountain

“(The plate needs) to have something that’s attractive, a nice graphic, that doesn’t interfere with the numbering,” he said. “Arizona came up with a really beautiful plate last year that had lots of animals on it, but the numbers got in the way of the design.”

The scenic Virginia Mountain plate is the state’s best-selling specialty plate, Stokes said. As of June 30, 2011, more than 265,000 had been sold. “The scenic is everybody’s favorite,” Stokes said.

Wildlife is Popular

During the 2010-11 fiscal year, Virginia’s specialty plates raised $3.1 million for 52 organizations. The top seller for those revenuesharing plates was a Clean Special Fuel plate, which garnered $361,000 for the state police’s high-occupancy vehicle enforcement fund. Oliver said Virginia always has nice tags. “Virginia is at the top,” he said. “They make a number of nice looking, graphic plates.”

Proving that not all of the state’s license plates are dark and forbidding, Oklahoma offers nine wildlife conservation plates, covering everything from bass to the Texas horned lizard. They remain fairly popular, said Paula Ross, communications director for the Oklahoma Tax Commission. “Wildlife was probably one of our initial (specialty) plates,” Ross said. The state has sold about 4,000 to 5,000 of those plates.

Top Seller in Fundraising

NEW MEXICO 2010 Award Winner New Mexico’s centennial license plate was the 2010 winner of America’s Best License Plate. “New Mexico has always had a very traditional looking license plate,” Oliver said. “They kept with the simplicity of their design. It does have that retro look to it. The colors are very striking.” S. U. Mahesh, spokesman for the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, said the award was an honor for the state. “It puts New Mexico on the map. It’s a good plate. It’s simple, it’s clear and New Mexicans like it.”

Color is one thing New Mexico residents seem to embrace when it comes to license plates. The turquoise centennial plate or these traditional yellow plates are both standard issues. “It’s got a lot of cultural and historical significance,” Mahesh said. “These are New Mexico’s colors.”

CAPITOL IDEAS

Cultural Significance

MAR / APR 2012

hot topic | FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION

Hitting the Lotto Jackpot States Look for New Ways to Finance Freight Transport by Sean Slone In 2004, the City of Prineville Railway had fallen on hard times. The sawmills of central Oregon that had once been the railway’s biggest customers had long since closed. Prineville needed a new facility for customers who didn’t have access to the railway or weren’t getting the type of service they needed, said Dale Keller, the railway’s business development manager. “The Class I railroads prefer carloads from multiple smaller customers to be consolidated on a short line railroad or at a distribution hub so they only have to make one stop to set out and pickup,” he said. “This increases the efficiency of their operations.” A short line railroad is a small or midsize railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance. The city acquired additional property to create a transload and warehouse operation in an effort to add carloads to the railroad. By 2006, several customers, including two large manufacturers, were using the facility and the site was unable to support additional business. Railway and city staff applied to the Connect Oregon program and received more than $9.4 million during the program’s first three funding cycles. The funding was used to develop a freight depot and a 12-acre bulk transload site. Keller said several companies have signed 20-year leases to become tenants at the freight depot. That success is helping ensure the future of rail service in central Oregon and the region, he said.

Funding More than Roads

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

CONNECT OREGON

ions k Funding Consideratlica gon grant program to pic tions to the Connect Ore

ns as State agencies review app ed on such consideratio h project is reviewed bas projects for funding. Eac improves access to jobs whether it: for Oregon businesses or ts cos n atio ort nsp tra  Reduces and sources of labor; benefit to the state; transportation system  Results in an economic ting elements of Oregon’s nec con link l ica crit a s  Provide ncy of the system; rove utilization and efficie imp ly rab asu me l wil t tha n; and sources other  Is ready for constructio borne by the applicant and be can t cos al tot its of  How much nsportation Fund. than the Multimodal Tra

Connect Oregon, a state competitive grant program, is one example of new strategies states are employing to fund often neglected modes of transportation that are vital to freight transportation and to keeping the nation’s supply chain moving. “The Oregon state constitution protects (dollars in the state highway trust fund) specifically for highway use only,” said Michael Bufalino, freight planning unit manager at the Oregon Department of Transportation. “As we worked through and identified non-highway needs, we really did not have a funding source to support the air, marine, rail and transit infrastructure.” Enter the Oregon State Legislature, which in 2005 authorized the Connect Oregon program and committed $100 million in lottery bond revenues to put toward 38 infrastructure projects around the state. Lawmakers approved another $100 million in 2007 to tackle 30 more

RAIL IMPROVEMENTS PORTLAND, ORE.—A Union Pacific engine moves rail cars through their railroad yard in Portland. Improving rail lines is one part of Connect Oregon, a state competitive grant program that offers a new strategy to fund often neglected modes of transportation that are vital to freight transportation and to keeping the nation’s supply chain moving. © AP Photo/Don Ryan

FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION | hot topic State Strategies in Moving Freight

FREIGHT CARS EUGENE, ORE.—Rows of freight cars sit on rail lines in Eugene. Several communities have received funding from Connect Oregon to improve various modes of transportation vital to freight transportation. Rail is just one example of the state’s efforts in that regard. © Corbis/Kevin R. Morris/Bohemian Nomad Picturemakers

projects and, in 2009, $100 million more to fund 40 additional projects. Last year, lawmakers approved $40 million in lottery-backed bonds for Connect Oregon IV and received 70 applications requesting more than $84.5 million. State agencies and modal and regional committees are reviewing applications to determine the most worthy projects.

Port Sees Benefits

manager for the Port of Portland. “Our state’s economy is dependent on access to markets to sell our products. Oregon is the ninth most trade-dependent state in the U.S. ... This program gives the state a way to maintain market access for our businesses.”

Oregon’s Successes

» MAR / APR 2012

Bufalino explained why his state chose the lottery-backed bonds as the mechanism to fund projects. “The reason why lottery dollars make a lot of sense is that there is a strong economic development component of this program as far as identifying the economic benefit of these given projects,” he said. Bufalino said the state is looking at how to document Connect Oregon’s numerous successes, which may be crucial to ensuring support for future program funding cycles. “In Connect Oregon IV, which we’re running right now, we are working with our applicants in order to identify a quantifiable measure of success,” he said. “Up to now, we have not been able to do that because each project has been kind of a standalone item. And so what we’re looking forward to now is getting a little bit more quantifiable evidence of the individual successes.”

CAPITOL IDEAS

A much larger freight facility, the Port of Portland, also has benefitted from Connect Oregon. The port received both a loan and a grant for rail yard infrastructure to help meet growth projections. It used the funds to incentivize Class I railroads to make an investment in rail infrastructure at the port. The investments allowed expansion of the businesses and terminals that were served by those railroads, increasing throughput and overall investment in the Portland region. Another Connect Oregon award allowed the Portland International Airport to invest in a de-icing system that ensures plane operations can be maintained and increased, which benefits the port as well. “This program allows for investments in parts of the system that are overlooked in other funding programs or ineligible for the traditional transportation funding sources,” said Martha Richmond, media relations

Many states are employing various programs and strategies to invest in transportation modes that serve freight transport. Researchers at the Kentucky Transportation Center at the University of Kentucky issued a report assessing states’ support of nonhighway modes of transportation. The researchers found:  Many states have short line or freight rail assistance programs, which provide a mix of loans and grants for various rail projects. Railroad rehabilitation programs, rail coordination programs and rail safety programs are also common.  States such as North Carolina and Virginia have secured a dedicated source of revenue for rail from the state transportation trust fund.  More than 30 states have created state infrastructure banks to fund transportation projects across all modes.  States offer tax incentives to spur development of freight rail infrastructure. Michigan allows a tax credit equal to 25 percent of the amount expended for maintenance or improvement of rightsof-way.  States can seek public-private partnerships and multi-state initiatives with privately owned railroads and the federal government.  The federal government allows states such as Illinois, Tennessee and Virginia to use fuel taxes to fund general or multi-modal transportation.  Virginia also offers a smart tax credit for waterways freight, which incentivizes inland waterway shipping and fosters economic development near the commonwealth’s ports.  Missouri allows port operations and administrative costs to be funded through a trust fund granting program.

hot topic | PORTS IN TRANSITION

SHIFTING PORTS OF CALL Panama Canal Expansion Expected to Bring Larger Ships to the Atlantic, Gulf Coasts by Mary Branham © AP Photo/David Goldman

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

CARGO PASSES A ship passes the downtown business district along the Savannah River as a pedestrian takes a photo in Savannah, Ga. Georgia and other states along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are working diligently to prepare their ports for the expansion of the Panama Canal, which could bring larger cargo ships to the area. In the story background, loading cranes line the Port of Virginia in Norfolk.

In 1986, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted permission for the Port of Virginia to dredge its channels to 55 feet, primarily because of the demand for U.S. coal. Action to address those export needs has put the Port of Virginia at Norfolk in prime position to benefit from the Panama Canal expansion, expected to be completed in 2014. “Many ports along the East Coast are trying to get to 50 feet, and I wish them well, but I’m not sure they’re going to get there by 2014,” said Jeff Keever, senior deputy executive director for external affairs for the Virginia Port Authority. That deep water is necessary to handle the massive ships expected to eventually descend on the Atlantic and Gulf coast ports when the Panama Canal expansion is completed. Currently, ships that are about 13 containers across can travel through the canal. Once the expansion is completed, much larger ships that are 22 containers wide will be able to travel through it. Ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have been scrambling to prepare since Panama announced its decision in 2007 to expand the canal. “Obviously, the impetus is that ports are trying to get a piece of the action because they see this incredible expansion in trade and exports,” said Sujit CanagaRetna, senior fiscal analyst for The Council of State Governments’ Southern office, who has studied the impact of the Panama Canal expansion on Southern ports. “They feel this is one way we can really stimulate growth, not just at the port, but across the state and across the region.”

Recession Slowed Preparation

But a large investment is needed to be competitive. The Port of Savannah in Georgia is one example. To be able to handle these larger ships,

PORTS IN TRANSITION | hot topic

area, according to CanagaRetna’s 2010 report, “The Panama Canal Expansion and SLC State Ports.”

The West Prepares

Timeline for Change

MAR / APR 2012

No one expects a change in the port picture to happen overnight. Some Atlantic and Gulf coast ports need extensive renovation, and the transportation infrastructure outside the ports could have an impact. “We stand to lose our competitive edge because we are not making fundamental infrastructure investments that are necessary for us to be competitive vis-à-vis the rest of the world,” said CanagaRetna. He notes that the U.S. export market has been one bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy. The ports—regardless of location—will play a key role in ensuring that continues. “The challenge is to make sure that this export-led growth continues,” CanagaRetna said. “You need these ports to be a conduit for this impressive flow of trade both into and out of the United States.”

But while the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are hoping for a spike in traffic, the West Coast ports aren’t conceding the business. “What you’ve got is ports around the country that are gearing up facilities to grow their own markets and increase their market share,” said Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s number one port destination. While the ports in the South and East are touting their proximity to the majority of the U.S. population, the Port of Los Angeles contends it is unmatched in facilities and speed to market. Knatz said ships from Asia that offload at the Port of Los Angeles can get their cargo to the densely populated states in the eastern United States seven to 10 days sooner than if the ships went through the Panama Canal to the ports in Virginia, Savannah or New Orleans. Knatz said 100 trains leave the California port each day. The two Western railroads have a good relationship with the Port of Los Angeles and know what is at stake, she said. “The rates they charge will make a big difference as to whether cargo will go through the canal or by rail,” she said. “They don’t intend to lose market share either.” The Port of Los Angeles handled 8.5 million containers in 2006; that dropped to 6.7 million containers in 2009 because of the economy, but rebounded to 7.8 million containers in 2010. Knatz noted that the Port of Los Angeles is at 53 feet channel depth, and only Virginia

and New York—which has accessibility problems because of the Bayonne Bridge— are deep enough to handle the size of ships anticipated to be making the move. The Port of Los Angeles isn’t resting on its laurels. Knatz said stakeholders have been working on competitive issues, including implementing an automation system to better serve customers. While the Port of Los Angeles is a municipal facility, Knatz said state leaders are rallying to help the port remain competitive. They recognize the economic impact of the port—1 million jobs in the state depend on the port, she said. “The whole idea of the canal has really given us a lot more support, which is good,” said Knatz.

CAPITOL IDEAS

CanagaRetna said, the state and federal government must make a $569 million investment, with the state footing one-third of the bill. Georgia has allocated its portion, but a holdup might come with the federal funding. “It’s not a full-on effort and the reason for that is because an important component of necessary funding is missing and that is the federal piece,” said CanagaRetna. While the Great Recession slowed some of those efforts to prepare, CanagaRetna said many states and localities continued the investment because they view the ports as huge economic drivers. Take Virginia, where ports in Norfolk and Richmond support 343,000 jobs, about 9 percent of the resident workforce, according to Keever. The Port of Virginia has invested money in container terminal improvements and larger cranes, a $450 million renovation of those facilities. Keever said the port used terminal revenue from customers and some of the Commonwealth Port Fund—money the ports receive from the state transportation trust fund that can be used for capital projects—to finance the improvements. “We hope Virginia can capitalize on the improvements that we’ve made in anticipation of this increased volume,” Keever said. As do other states. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wants to create an infrastructure fund to pay for deepening the Port of Charleston. New York and New Jersey plan to raise the Bayonne Bridge, which currently blocks the wider—and taller—ships they hope to attract. Florida’s 2010 state budget includes a $1 million line item for an intermodal logistics center to improve infrastructure in the port

hot topic | 10 THINGS ABOUT MASS TRANSIT

10 THINGS

You Should Know About Public Transit by Mary Branham The Federal Transit Administration has known for some time that its process to fund projects across the country is rigorous. With the amount of money at stake, that’s not a bad thing, said Administrator Peter Rogoff. But, he said, “it also is unnecessarily burdensome.” New proposed rules are designed to take a broader approach in evaluating the merit of projects, he said. “They look at not just the travel time savings, but also the economic development benefits from those investments,” said Rogoff. As fuel prices rise, many more drivers are looking at public transit—like light rail and buses—as a means of saving money. That interest is prompting cities and communities to look for assistance in building out those services, said Rogoff. That’s where the FTA’s New Starts program comes in. It includes $2 billion in funding to help communities of all sizes looking to expand transit services. “It’s not all about big cities,” said Rogoff. “It’s really a combination of who has the vision and resources to help cost-share in it.” With that in mind, the FTA is working to make it easier for states and communities to apply for federal funding, removing some burdensome rules that have made it difficult in the past for communities to build what they need to serve commuters. Here are 10 things state policymakers—and community leaders—should keep in mind as they consider public transit. The American Public Transportation Association, unless noted, has provided the information.

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

FUNDING MECHANISMS Passenger fares pay a small percentage of the operating budget for transit—31.5 percent. They pay an even smaller percentage of the total transit budget across the country—21.5 percent. States pay 21.8 percent of total transit funding, including 25.3 percent of operating expenses and 25.3 percent of capital expenses. The federal government provides 42.2 percent of capital expenses; its contribution to overall transit funding is 19.1 percent. The rest is provided by local governments and directly generated funds, which can include advertising, in addition to passenger fares.

USAGE INCREASES Ridership in the first three quarters of 2011 was up 1.5 percent in the first and second quarters, and 2 percent in the third quarter over the same time frame in 2010, according to APTA. “Ridership is up and, in some communities, it’s at record levels,” Rogoff told Capitol Ideas. The number of regular commuters on transit has increased from 5.98 million in 2004 to 6.92 million in 2009, according to APTA. The percentage of commuters using transit as their primary means of transportation to work rose from 4.57 percent in 2004 to 4.99 percent in 2009.

LEADING SYSTEMS New York City Transit led the nation in the number of passenger trips, with more than 3.2 billion trips. It also led the nation in the number of passenger miles with 11.9 billion miles. The next closest transit agency in providing passenger trips was Chicago Transit Authority with 521 million passenger trips. In passenger miles, the New Jersey Transit Corporation was second with 3.6 billion miles.

MILES OF SERVICE In 2009, U.S. transit systems provided 4.6 billion miles of service; operating transit vehicles for 312 million hours of service.

ANDOVER, MASS.—Commuters walk on the platform at the MBTA station. The Great Recession and cuts in government subsidies have wreaked havoc on mass transit in America. © AP Photo/Elise Amendola

10 THINGS ABOUT MASS TRANSIT | hot topic

BUSES LEAD RIDERSHIP

The mode of transit with the most ridership was buses, with 52.5 percent of passenger trips, followed by heavy rail with 33.6 percent, light rail and commuter rail, with 4.5 percent each, paratransit—or demand response mode of transit—with 1.8 percent and trolleybus with 1 percent.

HIGH POINT, N.C.—Commuters wait for the bus at the Hi Tran terminal in High Point. The terminal is scheduled to be upgraded. © AP Photo/The Enterprise, Sonny Hedgecock

INVESTMENT PAYS OFF

Every $1 billion invested in public transportation creates and supports 36,000 jobs. The public transportation industry is a $55 billion industry supporting 1.9 million jobs, APTA President and CEO Michael P. Melaniphy said in his 2012 State of the Public Transportation Industry. For every $1 invested in public transportation, $4 is generated in economic returns.

In 2011, 79 percent of public transit ballot initiatives were approved at the state and local level. Since 2000, ballot initiatives dealing with transit have passed by 73 percent, according to Melaniphy.

New estimates show a family can save from $10,000 to $12,000 a year if it removes one vehicle from usage—including a car payment and costs to operate, according to Rogoff. According to the APTA’s January Transit Savings Report, for instance, individuals who ride public transportation instead of driving can save, on average, $816 dollars a month, and $9,790 annually. These savings are based on the cost of commuting by public transportation compared to the Jan. 10, 2012, average national gas price and the national unreserved monthly parking rate.

WINCHESTER, KY.—Driver Pat Rogers accepts a ticket from commuter Amanda Pressnell. Bus service in the small Kentucky town began operations in 2008 and provided more than 8,000 rides in its first year. © AP Photo/The Winchester Sun, James Mann

EMPLOYMENT

Transit services employed more than 400,000 people across the country in operations, maintenance and general administration.

MAR / APR 2012

SUPPORT GROWS

COMMUTER SAVINGS

The U.S. is home to 7,200 transit systems, including 6,700 paratransit services and 1,088 bus services. Bus services have the largest fleet of vehicles, with 66,506 vehicles available for peak service.

CAPITOL IDEAS

NEW YORK— Bus driver Dady Halaby stops at a red light as he drives the M103 bus along Lexington Avenue on New York's Upper East Side. © AP Photo/Tina Fineberg

TRANSIT SERVICES

straight talk | TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES

Straight WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE MOST PRESSING ISSUES—AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS—FACING STATES WITH REGARD TO TRANSPORTATION?

AN AN TH PR AS AD Transpor tation Secretar y Florida

BR UC E STA RR

TOLLING NEW ROADS, RIVER CROSSINGS

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

transpor tation is not “The gas tax as a funding source for e to decline, but the tinu con sustainable. … The revenues the pressure is to So ... . usage (of roads) hasn’t declined e while not having ctur stru continue to maintain the infra going to be are We … it. sufficient resources to meet osal) for any new prop (a re advancing through the legislatu new major river any or add we capacity on interstates that toll. ... Whatever the crossing, that we look at putting a g your traditional ettin offs ’re toll revenue generates, you built.” ects proj e revenues in order to get thos

Senator Oregon

USERS MUST PAY FOR TRANSPORTATION “You have more and more vehicle miles traveled and less and less fuel purchased in order to maintain those miles. That creates a problem for legislato rs as they figure out how to fund transpor tation system and infrastructure improvements. … At the end of the day, I believe that the states will experiment with a lot of different options. … The primary principle that Oregon has come to believe is important is that we should have a user pay system so the people who use the transpor tatio n system are the ones that ought to pay for it.”

TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES | straight talk

AL ICE HAUS MA N

BREAK THE GRIDLOCK

Representative

“… Transportation funding has been caught up in the same gridlock that ever ything else is, and that is really inaction on a whole range of issues (in Congress). Obv iously, the solution there is to face the fact that we need to do this and to move in a bipa rtisan way. Transportation in the past was alwa ys that place where we could find bipa rtisa n compromise. … Gradually we’re com ing to an understanding that our tran spor tatio n solutions will require a range of solutions , so we need to not disinvest in roads and brid ges, but to balance that with air travel, whic h we do reasonably well, rail which we do lous y, and then the whole range of public mass transit options on the local level.”

Minnesota Co-chair CSG Transpor tation Task Force

THOM AS McGE E Senator Massachusetts

FEDERAL CONSENSUS NEEDED TO HELP STATES

Vice president, American s for Transportation Mobility Coalition Executive Director, Transportation & Infras tructure, U.S. Chamber of Comm erce

A MONEY AND PROCESS PROBLE

» MAR / APR 2012

“It’s a money and proces s problem. In many sta tes, the inability to partner wit h the private sec tor to bri ng best practices to bear in pro jec t delivery, as well as finding different ways to finan ce projec ts, are going to be impediments to doing major transportation inv estments. The second piece that makes it hard to do the se long-term bigger pieces is just a lack of clarity on the reg ulator y and process front. States ne ed to make sure they are opening up every possible avenu e for innovation in fun ding and financing and for bring ing expertise from differ ent sec tors. … The second piece is engaging all levels of go ver nment in efforts to reform proces ses so that they actually ser ve the end goal.”

CAPITOL IDEAS

“We’re really at a crisis stage in terms of our ability to continue to make the investments that we need to keep our infrastructure at a point of being safe and efficient and allowing us to grow our economy. … I think we need to think a little bit outside the box and build a consensus in terms of, hopefully, at the federal level continuing to make an investment in transportation infrastructure, recognizing that those investments coming back to the states help us to improve our transportation infrastructure, but just as importantly allow us to build our economy.”

JA NE T KAVI NO KY

stated briefly | AFFILIATE & ASSOCIATION NEWS

CAPITOL IDEAS

Â»

MAR / APR 2012

AFFILIATE & ASSOCIATION NEWS | stated briefly

43 CAPITOL IDEAS

Â» MAR / APR 2012

feature | ECONOMY VS. ECOSYSTEM

Balancing the Interests of the Economy & Great Lakes Ecosystem

by Tim Anderson

BATTLE OVER INVASIVE SPECIES CHICAGO—Brett Kirbach of Illinois Marine Towing stands watch while working on the Windy City tow boat. State leaders are striving to balance the sometimes competing interests of the economy and the Great Lakes ecosystem. © Getty Images/Scott Olson

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

Policymakers are striving to find a balance between protecting the delicate ecosystem of the Great Lakes and preserving much-needed jobs. The problem comes in the form of invasive aquatic species entering the Great Lakes. Take, for example, the case of sea lamprey, a fish native to the Atlantic Ocean that came to, and then spread throughout, the lakes via manmade shipping canals built in the 1800s. By the middle of the 20th century, sea lampreys were wreaking havoc on the Great Lakes ecosystem and fishing industry. The population of lake trout was decimated. To this day, the U.S. and Canadian governments are spending millions of dollars a year to control this non-native fish. More than 180 nonindigenous species have been detected in the Great Lakes. Some are harmless, but others—such as the sea lamprey— have had a profound ecological impact.

Wisconsin Rep. Cory Mason, whose district borders Lake Michigan and also includes some of the state’s treasured 15,000 inland lakes, is all too familiar with the impact these invasions can have. “We’ve certainly had to deal with the zebra mussel problems in Lake Michigan, and invasive species in our inland lakes change how people can use them,” Mason said. “They affect our quality of life. And once they’re here, there is no redoing it. They’re here permanently.”

Tough New Standards

Led in part by lawmakers like Mason, states have taken a lead role over the past decade in trying to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes. Today, the fight is centered in New York, which plans to begin enforcing the toughest standards on ballast water discharges in the country next year.

Late in 2011, Mason spearheaded a letterwriting campaign—signed by 21 Wisconsin lawmakers—urging New York to stand by its rules. “Because of its geographic location, New York is a first-in port of entry, so a tougher standard in that state means protecting the entire basin,” Mason said. He points out that invasive species are not only an ecological threat, but also have an economic consequence. A study by University of Notre Dame researcher David Lodge estimated that these non-native species cost the Great Lakes region $200 million a year. But some state and federal leaders believe New York’s rules go too far in trying to address the threat. While the seaway has opened up a new pathway for invasive species to come to the Great Lakes, it has opened up new economic opportunities for the region to trade with the

ECONOMY VS. ECOSYSTEM | feature

treatment that reduces the number of viable organisms in ballast water discharges. But as Brammeier noted, “States are not of one mind on this issue.” The letters written by Mason and the three governors illustrate this divide. Still, some lawmakers would like the eight Great Lakes states to find consensus on a uniform discharge standard for ballast water. In late 2011, the Michigan Legislature passed a package of bills that in part call on the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to lead such an effort. The legislative package, sponsored by Sen. Howard Walker, also establishes a 19-member Aquatic Invasive Species Advisory Council, which will revise Michigan’s laws, regulations and programs, as well as update the state’s Aquatic Invasive Species Management Plan.

The Federal Response

Meanwhile, New York’s proposed rules have prompted a strong response from some federal lawmakers. In late 2011, the U.S. House passed legislation stripping states of their authority to create ballast water regulations stronger than those at the federal level. The same measure would establish a federal ballast water discharge standard that is the same as the one set by the United Nations’ International Maritime Organiza-

tion, known as the IMO. As of early 2012, not enough member countries had ratified the IMO standard to be enforced. New York’s pending discharge standard is 100 times more stringent than the UN standard for existing vessels. In contrast, states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin have established ballast water programs using the IMO standard. And both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Coast Guard are moving ahead with plans to tie a federal standard to the IMO standard. While a discharge standard remains a priority for many, some past actions have helped in the fight against invasive species. Starting in 2006, all overseas vessels entering the Great Lakes were required to conduct saltwater flushing and ballast water exchanges. Since then, there have been no reports of invasive species entering the lakes via ocean-going vessels. But there are limits to the efficacy of these practices in preventing the introduction of invasive species. The IMO standard adds another layer of protection to these existing practices. States such as New York and California have decided that even this standard is not enough, while others say anything above it simply is not feasible.

MAR / APR 2012

—Wisconsin Rep. Cory Mason

“(Invasive species) affect our quality of life. And once they’re here, there is no redoing it. They’re here permanently.”

CAPITOL IDEAS

rest of the world. Governors in Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin say New York’s new rules will close these opportunities. The state’s discharge standard is incompatible with current ballast water treatment technologies, the governors wrote in a letter last year to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and will “possibly force the closure of the St. Lawrence Seaway and imperil thousands of maritimerelated jobs.” That letter prompted Mason’s letter to New York. Since the seaway began operating in 1959, more than 2.5 billion metric tons of goods valued at more than $375 million have been moved through it. A 2011 study done on behalf of the Great Lakes shipping industry estimated that the economic activity related to the seaway supports 227,000 jobs in the region. Over the past half-century, the ballast water of ocean-going ships has been the leading source of nonindigenous species introductions in the Great Lakes, and is the cause of notorious invaders such as the zebra mussel and round goby entering the freshwater system. States have responded by adopting mandatory ballast water treatment programs and discharge standards. Michigan established the first state-level permitting program in 2005; other states have since followed. “States like New York have basically said, ‘We are not going to tolerate this source of pollution anymore, and we’re going to try and figure out how to deal with it,’” said Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “One way to deal with it is through the rapid development of (ballast water) technology, in order to achieve a standard to protect the Great Lakes.” The idea is to establish a standard of

feature | FEDERALISM CASES

STATES’ RIGHTS AT CENTER OF TRILOGY OF CASES BEFORE SUPREME COURT by Lisa Soronen

It is a rare Supreme Court term where the issue of federalism is raised in all of the most prominent cases. In the Affordable Care Act litigation, the Arizona immigration case and the Texas redistricting case, however, states’ rights are the central question with which the Court must contend. What makes these three cases different from even the prominent federalism cases of the last few decades is that they all involve politically charged topics—health care, immigration and voting— and concern issues that directly impact the lives of your average American, health care in particular. As usual, the implications of the Court’s decisions in these cases may extend well beyond the specific facts litigated.

Affordable Care Act

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

The Court is considering four questions in the Affordable Care Act case—two of which address federalism head on. First, they will decide whether the individual mandate—which requires almost all Americans by 2014 to obtain health insurance or pay a fine— violates the Commerce Clause. One of the reasons the 11th Circuit concluded the individual mandate is unconstitutional is that insurance and health care are traditional areas of state concern. Second, the Affordable Care Act requires states to expand Medicaid coverage or lose all federal Medicaid funding, not just additional  ARIZONA IMMIGRATION WASHINGTON, D.C.—Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a 1995 Toll Fellow, shown outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., is one of many people awaiting a ruling on whether four provisions of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 are preempted by federal law. © Corbis/Susan Walsh/AP

FEDERALISM CASES | feature federal funding that will cover the cost of the expansion. The Court will decide whether the Medicaid expansion is permissible under the Spending Clause or fails the coercion test because states are essentially compelled to participate in Medicaid. Whether the Court considers the requirement to buy health insurance interstate commerce or the Medicaid expansion coercive will impact both legal doctrines in contexts well beyond the individual mandate and Medicaid. The argument that Congress can regulate inactivity—not buying health insurance—is novel. Likewise, the Court has only twice ruled on the coercion in the Spending Clause context, making any ruling—much less a ruling regarding a program as big as Medicaid—significant.

Arizona Immigration

In this case, the Supreme Court will decide whether four provisions of Arizona’s immigration statute are pre-empted by federal law. Arizona argued in its certiorari petition that Senate Bill 1070 “authorizes cooperative law enforcement and imposes sanctions that consciously parallel federal law.” But, the Ninth Circuit disagreed, concluding that all four provisions of Senate Bill 1070 are pre-empted by federal immigration law. Regarding police being required to determine if a person is in the United States legally, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act allows state and local police to aid in immigration enforcement only under the supervision of the attorney general. Regarding state criminalization of failing to carry immigration papers, the Ninth Circuit concluded this requirement is pre-empted because Congress did not provide for state participation in this section of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, though it did in other

sections of the law. Regarding Arizona criminalizing employment for undocumented immigrants, the Ninth Circuit noted that the INA only sanctions employers. Regarding police officers being allowed to arrest a person who is likely subject to deportation, the Ninth Circuit concluded this section is pre-empted because “states do not have the inherent authority to enforce the civil provisions of federal immigration law.” Other states have adopted state immigration laws similar to Arizona’s. These laws, too, may be pre-empted by federal law, depending on how the Court rules in this case.

Texas Redistricting

The issue in the Texas redistricting case was whether and how much a federal district court must defer to a state legislature’s drawing of electoral maps when the federal district court creates interim electoral maps. Due to population growth, Texas gained four U.S. House of Representative seats requiring the Texas state legislature to redraw its electoral maps. The state legislature’s redistricting plan would likely allow Republicans to gain three of the four additional seats. Per the Voting Rights Act, Texas’s redistricting plan must be precleared to make sure it wasn’t discriminatory on the basis of race or color. While preclearance of Texas’s plan was still being litigated in a D.C. federal district court, the candidate filing period for 2012 election was closing imminently. So the federal district court in San Antonio drew an interim redistricting map. The court’s interim map would likely give Democrats two of the new seats and, according to Texas, substantially changed all but nine of the 36 districts. Texas sued, claiming the federal district court should have deferred to the state legislature’s elec-

toral map when drawing up an interim map. The Supreme Court’s opinion in this case was favorable to the Texas legislature. The Court vacated the federal district court’s interim maps. It instructed the district court to “take guidance from the State’s recently enacted plan in drafting an interim plan. That plan reflects the State’s policy judgments on where to place new districts and how to shift existing ones in response to massive population growth.”

Conclusion

The Supreme Court has already issued an opinion in the Texas redistricting case. It will issue an opinion in the Affordable Care Act and Arizona immigration cases no later than the end of its term in June. Not all the cases from this term affecting state and local government have been as prominent, controversial or partisan as these three cases. The State and Local Legal Center has filed or will file amicus briefs in three other cases (highlighted below), all of which will likely have a greater impact on local government than state government. Visit the State and Local Legal Center website at http://www.statelocallc.org/ for more information about these cases and to read the center’s briefs.

LISA SORONEN is executive director of the State and Local Legal Center, which works to advance awareness of the significance of federalism issues in the courts.

OTHER INTERESTING CASES » The issue in Filarsky v. Delia is whether a law firm attorney hired by a city to conduct an internal affairs investigation can be sued for violating someone’s constitutional rights, even if the law firm attorney could not be sued if he or she was the city’s in-house counsel.

The issue in Reichle v. Howards is whether a person arrested based on probable cause can bring a lawsuit claiming he or she was arrested in retaliation for asserting his or her First Amendment rights.

This issue in Armour v. Indianapolis is whether the Equal Protection Clause prohibits a city from refusing to refund payments made by taxpayers who have paid their assessments in full, while forgiving the obligations of identically situated taxpayers who chose to pay over a multi-year installment plan.

MAR / APR 2012

ARMOUR V. INDIANAPOLIS

REICHLE V. HOWARDS

CAPITOL IDEAS

FILARSKY V. DELIA

how to | CREATE A 21ST CENTURY DMV

DRIVERS WANT SIMPLICITY, CONVENIENCE WHEN DEALING WITH THE DMV Rick Holcomb, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, said the commonwealth’s DMV began its transformation to the digital age during the mid-1990s. Now, residents can get a text message to remind them to renew their plates, order a driver’s license renewal online and shop for custom plates at home. Holcomb said technology is helping to provide better and faster service for millions of Virginia’s drivers, all with fewer employees and a smaller budget than 20 years ago. Here are his tips on how to change your state’s DMV from a source of frustration to a real asset.

RECOGNIZE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE CHANGING. “Understand that today’s customer wants to be served at a time, place and in a manner convenient to them, not convenient to the government,” Holcomb said. “We know we can’t be the Starbucks of state government. We can’t have a DMV on every corner. … Investing in a virtual office is clearly the way to go.”

MOVE ONLINE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. The Virginia DMV now offers 31 transactions—from renewing a driver’s license to renewing tags—that can be done online. This saves time for the customers and cash for the state. Holcomb said it costs $22.40 to renew a driver’s license in person, while it only costs $11.26 online. “Make sure that your virtual office is open 24-7, it’s easy to maneuver and you’ve got as many transactions as possible loaded,” he said. “Listen to your customers. See what other states are doing.”

OFFER INCENTIVES FOR ONLINE TRANSACTIONS. Some states charge an extra fee for renewing licenses online or for using a credit card. Not Virginia. Holcomb encourages credit card fee discounts. His office promotes the discounts: “Walk into a customer service office and it’s going to cost you $6 more to do your transaction. Get a $1 discount on the Web, then a $1 discount per year to renew your tags,” he said. Drivers also can renew the tags for three years online versus two years in an office. “Give them incentives; that’s clearly one thing that we learned,” he said.

COLLABORATE WITH OTHER AGENCIES AND STATES. Virginia’s DMV is offering more than just its services. Residents can apply for a hunting or fishing license while registering their boat. Through Virginia’s participation in the Electronic Verification of Vital Events project, the DMV can electronically access birth records from the 34 participating states if residents don’t have a paper copy of their birth certificate. Virginia residents even get a hard copy of their birth certificate mailed to them. “I think more and more, customers look at state government as one entity,” Holcomb said. “They’re very frustrated when they come in and you say, ‘Sorry, you’ve got to go down to this (other) agency.’”

KEEP LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. “State governments need to catch up with what their customer base is demanding,” Holcomb said. His office will join the social media world in the next few months. “We’re missing out on communicating with the next generation of customers by not being able to get our message across in a way they find useful. States need to move ahead.”

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

UPCOMING MEETINGS | on the road

National and Regional Meetings Registration and application deadlines may apply. Visit www.csg.org/events for complete details. CSG West 65th Annual Meeting July 20–23 | Edmonton, Alberta

more information, visit: www.csg.org/events.  For

CSG Midwestern Legislative Conference 67th Annual Meeting July 15–18 | Cleveland, Ohio

CSG Southern Legislative Conference 66th Annual Meeting July 28–Aug. 1 | Charleston, W. Va. NAST Treasury Management Conference May 15–18 | Albuquerque, N.M.

NEMA Mid-Year Conference March 25–30 | Alexandria, Va.

CSG Eastern Regional Conference Annual Meeting July 20–23 | Atlantic City, N.J.

NAST Legislative Conference March 19–22 | Washington, D.C.

NLGA 2012 Federal-State Relations Meeting March 21–23 | Washington, D.C.

CSG AFFILIATES NAST (National Association of State Treasurers) | www.nast.net NEMA (National Emergency Management Association) | www.nemaweb.org NLGA (National Lieutenant Governors Association) | www.nlga.us

Mark Your Calendars for CSG Regional Meetings CSG East: 52nd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Regional Conference in Atlantic City, N.J., July 20–23. Early registration, June 24; hotel cutoff, June 22.

MAR / APR 2012

CSG WEST: 65th Annual Meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, July 20–23. Early registration, June 1; hotel cutoff, July 16.

CSG South: 66th Annual Meeting of the Southern Legislative Conference in Charleston, W.Va., July 28–Aug. 1. For more information on the 2012 SLC Annual Meeting, please visit www.slcatlanta.org.

Amy Webb, who heads the international digital strategy consultant Webbmedia Group, will discuss “Living Virtually” during The Council of State Governments’ 2012 National Leadership Conference May 19 in La Quinta, Calif. Webb will share strategies for dealing with an ever-growing online world. Register now for the National Leadership Conference, set for May 17–20.

CAPITOL IDEAS

CSG Midwest: 67th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Legislative Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, July 15–18. Early registration, May 7; hotel cutoff, June 11.

Lessons to Learn for ’Living Virtually’

shout out | WYOMING SEN. MICHAEL VON FLATERN

MICHAEL VON FLATERN Wyoming State Senator / Pilot

CAPITOL IDEAS

MAR / APR 2012

Wyoming Sen. Michael Von Flatern has a vested interest in his state’s transportation infrastructure. The licensed pilot and owner of a private charter air service said Wyoming’s transportation system needs some major work, but, like many other states, the funding won’t come easy. The state’s 560,000 residents must maintain and improve Interstate 80, a major national artery that runs through Wyoming. “This disproportionately drains our resources and leaves us struggling to maintain other roads,” he said. He, like many other policymakers across the country, believes states must find a new route to funding transportation. “This state, along with others, needs to generate more revenue from those that use the resources,” said Von Flatern. While those solutions may be a road less traveled at this point, this pilot is prepared for a takeoff of the discussion and hopes for a landing that will prove beneficial for years to come.

Do you know someone in state government who deserves a shout out? Email Krista Rinehart at krinehart@csg.org.

more on Michael Von Flatern,  For visit: capitolideas.csg.org.

The Council of State Governments 2760 Research Park Drive P.O. Box 11910 Lexington, KY 40578-1910

W W W. CSG . OR G

CSG

KANSAS

EMLER SENATE MA JORITY LEADER JAY

CSG 2012 CHAIR

N AT I O N A L LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

PUERTO RICO GOV. LUIS FOR

La Quinta, California | May 17–20, 2012

Information. Insight. Innovations. FEATURED SPEAKER

Amy Webb Webbmedia Group Saturday, May 19 | Noon

REGISTER NOW! Hotel Block/Early Registration Deadline: April 27 Visit the National Leadership Conference website for complete details!

www.csg.org/2012leadershipconference

TUÑO

CSG 2012 PRESIDENT