Highway bonding measure goes before Nebraska Legislature's Revenue Committee

BEATRICE – A Nebraska lawmaker says its’ time for the state to adopt highway bonding to complete the expressway system in the state.
Senator Lynn Walz introduced LB 542, heard Wednesday in the Revenue Committee. It would allow the Highway Commission to issue bonds up to $400 million that would have to be repaid by 2040. No bonds could be issued after June, of 2027.

"Bonding would be an option....it's an option for the Department of Transportation that could be used for specific projects already identified under the Build Nebraska Act...which includes the long, very long overdue expressway system."

Walz says local governments commonly using bonding to complete needed projects and more than 40 states use bonding for road construction. Under the Nebraska measure, bonds would be paid off from the State Highway Capital Improvement Fund.  The expressway system was established in 1988, but much of it is not completed.

"Thirty years later one third of that project is still unfinished. The initial projected cost of this project was around $200 million. And now just to complete the 161 miles, will cost upward of $500 million....with the costs increasing every single year."

One part is U.S. Highway 275 between Omaha, Fremont, West Point and Norfolk. Another is Highway 30 including the Columbus and Grand Island areas. Jake Owen is with the York County Economic Development Corporation.

"I understand, and we thank you for fiscal responsibility. As taxpayers and citizens, as someone who works with grants and donations and daily navigates this field, we thank you for being responsible with our money. But, we also want to say we support this idea of getting a bond. We ask you to be responsible with our money, not just by not spending it at the wrong time, but spending it at the right time....and by investing in something at a time it is wise to invest. We're not going to get another opportunity like this."

Supporters of bonding cited favorable interest rates for using that option. Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning calls the pay-as-you-go approach “penny-wise and pound-foolish”.

"Think of the money saved Nebraska taxpayers, if the project would have been wholly funded from the beginning. Think of the opportunity costs of lost lives, and economic growth by not having the infrastructure in place."

Revenue Committee member, Senator Mike Flood, whose district includes part of U.S. 275, contends the Lincoln South Beltway project is essentially a bonded project, shifted to private contractors.

"And, what's that like to be sitting there since 1988, and not have any progress on a four-lane highway...and suddenly a roadway that wasn't in the 1988 plan has the benefit of bonding at a time we're still stuck with two-lane roads? (Moenning) "I don't begrudge any part of the state for seeking to modernize its infrastructure, and I know the South Beltway project is a good project. But, we should be able to do better, for the rest of the state."

Governor Pete Ricketts has opposed bonding for highway projects in the past, favoring the pay-as-you-go approach.