This week Senator John Rafferty, chariman of the Senate Transportation Committee, responded to the Governors proposed $1.7 Billion Dollar Transportation Funding Plan indicating that he did not feel that the plan went far enough. Senator Rafferty suggested that the plan should also include increases to vehicle registration fees and drivers license fees to generate the additional funding and that his goal for a funding amount was in the $2.7 to 2.8 Billion dollars per year range. There seems to be some bipartisan support for increasing the funding to this level, however no specific legislation has been introduced.
There is also discussion of using private public partnerships to generate the funds for some major bridge rehabilitation projects. Under theses plans a private group would fund the bridge repairs and then collect tolls on the bridge for a set period of time before turning the bridge back to the public.
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