House to take up transportation bond bill with Ch. 90 funding

The House on Jan. 29 is scheduled to take up a multi-year state transportation bond bill that includes $300 million for the Chapter 90 local roads program for fiscal 2015.

The bill (H. 3763) was amended to include the Chapter 90 provision by the House Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets, and was favorably reported by that committee as well as the House Ways and Means Committee.

“The committee added $300 million for Chapter 90 to the transportation bond bill so that these vital funds will be available for this year’s construction season,” said Rep. Antonio Cabral of New Bedford, chair of the House Bonding Committee. “Chapter 90 is the primary source of funding for cities and towns to make crucial road repairs, so I’m very pleased to advance a bill that included this funding.”

The Senate will take up the bill once the House has passed its version.

The MMA has been calling for bond authorization for a five-year Chapter 90 program providing $300 million per year, indexed to inflation. Following three years of lengthy delays in the release of Chapter 90 funds, the MMA has been urging the Legislature to take early action on Chapter 90 for fiscal 2015 and beyond in order to give local officials the ability to plan ahead, take advantage of the full construction season, and use the funding efficiently.

The administration, meanwhile, has released a five-year, $12.4 billion transportation spending proposal that calls for level-funding Chapter 90 at $200 million through fiscal 2018. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has scheduled six public hearings on the draft plan, which was released Jan. 10. The hearings begin on Jan. 29 in Boston and Worcester and continue on Feb. 3 in Amherst and Pittsfield, Feb. 5 in Dartmouth and Feb. 10 in Lynn.

For the current fiscal year, both the House and Senate unanimously passed a $300 million, stand-alone Chapter 90 bond bill, and the governor signed it into law but he decided to release just $200 million.

A statewide survey conducted by the MMA a year ago documents that the state’s cities and towns would need to spend $562 million each year to maintain local roads in a “state of good repair,” the industry standard, but communities spend far less due to inadequate resources. With this in mind, local officials and the MMA have been consistently calling for a 50 percent increase in the Chapter 90 program, from $200 million to $300 million per year.