State Senate Finance Chairman Mike Hall said Monday he believes public sentiment is growing for the Legislature to come up with ways to fix state roads, even if it comes with a price tag.
"They're not naïve enough to think you can do it without money," Hall, R-Putnam, said of taxpayers' recognition that good roads will require new sources of revenue.
House Finance Chairman Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, said he expects highways funding to be a major issue during the 2016 legislative session.
"I think our goal is to put a lot of things on the drawing board, and see what sticks," he said.
The chairmen's comments followed the interim Joint Committee on Finance's overview of the findings of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways, which released its final recommendations for road funding in mid-May.
Acting Administration Secretary Jason Pizatella, who headed the commission that has been studying highway funding issues since 2012, noted that the report found that the state needs an additional $1.1 billion a year of road funds to complete and adequately maintain the state's highways system.
However, the commission recommended about $141 million a year in new taxes and fees, along with a bond issue of up to $1 billion, to be funded by keeping tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike through 2049.
"We know a state of 1.8 million people cannot and should not under any circumstances be asked to come up with $1 billion," Pizatella said of the commission's more limited funding proposals.
Commission member Jan Vineyard, who is also president of the West Virginia Trucking Association, pointed out that all surrounding states have enacted measures to increase transportation funding.
Virginia and Maryland each enacted plans increasing funding by $800 million or more a year, while Pennsylvania passed a comprehensive plan in 2013 increasing transportation funding by $2.3 billion a year.
Ohio, meanwhile, issued $1.5 billion in Ohio Turnpike toll bonds that will leverage a total of $3 billion in new transportation projects.
Vineyard told legislators she knows they hear complaints about poor road conditions on an almost daily basis, and said the commission heard the same thing while surveying drivers around the state.
"The public clearly said doing nothing is not acceptable," she said.
Afterward, Nelson said the Legislature also needs to look at creative ways to fund state roads, possibly including tax-increment financing plans where new highways are funded with the increased property taxes from the development they create.
Hall, meanwhile, said taxpayers are already paying a price for the state's poor road conditions.
"They're paying to drive our roads, but [the price is] in automobile repairs," he said.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.