BY JIM BARON

LINCOLN — Tolls on the Iway, reinstating the car tax, indexing the gas tax to inflation, and arranging for people with jobs in Massachusetts and Connecticut to pay Rhode Island income taxes on the days they work at home and telecommute. 

Those were some of the ideas offered by members of the public Monday at a public hearing of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Transportation funding, held at Community College of RI.
It would take $639 million a year for the next 10 years to get Rhode Island’s infrastructure, particularly its roads and bridges, in good shape, said Department of Transportation Director Michael Lewis. Currently, the state has about $354 million a year to spend, and most of that comes from the federal government, which
Seeis also squeezed for transportation funding and could cut back what it sends to the states.
Part of Rhode Island’s problem, Lewis said, is an overreliance on federal funding for the transportation infrastructure work it does. While regional neighbors such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire, pay more than 60 percent of their own bridge and road work, about the national average; Rhode Island pays just 27 percent.
Just weeks ago, Rhode Island was in danger of losing $70 million of the $220 million it had been slated to get in federal funds. That cut was averted at the 11th hour, Lewis said, but next year could be a different story, he noted, adding that if federal funding does go down, “we are in a world of hurt.”
In many ways, the state already is.
Of the 772 roads and bridges in the Ocean State, 164 are structurally deficient, and 61, including the Pawtucket River Bridge on Route 95 are posted with weight limits. The Pawtucket bridge, Lewis said, is the only one on the entire Interstate Highway System with a weight limit.
While 30 percent of Rhode Island’s roadways are rated as good, and 12 percent are esteemed as excellent, that means 58 percent of the roads are only fair (32 percent), poor (16 percent) or outright failed (10 percent).
“There is simply no choice but to act now,” said Anthony De Luca of Saunderstown. “To do nothing would be irresponsible, costly and disastrous.
“Without proper funding to implement short and long term highway, bridge and infrastructure repair, maintenance and construction programs, one truth is absolutely clear,” De Luca said. “Our problems will become worse and the costs will grow exponentially. The safety of our citizens will be compromised, our economy will suffer great losses and the present costs will pale by comparison.”
Barry Schiller of North Providence suggested a referendum to see if Rhode Islanders would pay a higher sales tax to fund a package of DOT and RIPTA improvements. “Don’t assume we won’t support you,” Schiller told the DOT officials at the hearing.
Highway tolls, he said, should be a “last resort.” But if Rhode Island decides to institute tolls, it should do so on the Iway. “Do it where the cars are and where the expense is.”
Richard Langseth of the Greenwich Bay Watershed Group, pushed the idea of having Rhode Island telecommuters shift their income tax obligation to this state, rather than paying it to the state that houses their employer.
“There are clear benefits for Rhode Island to support such a telecommuting program,” Langseth testified, “namely millions of dollars in state taxes going to other states. With an official telecommuting program in place, it might be possible to build incentives that would encourage employees to join up and get off the highways and commuter trains.”
The blue ribbon panel plans three more public hearings across the state between now and Sept. 25, one in Providence, one in South Kingstown and one in Newport.
The group is scheduled to give its final report to Governor Carcieri in November.