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JEFFERSON CITY — Legislation is on a fast track in the Missouri Senate to make the state comply with federal standards for commercial truckers and drunken driving sentences in an effort to avoid penalties that could dock tens of millions of federal road construction dollars.

The Senate Transportation Committee took the unusual step Wednesday of hearing testimony and approving the legislation all in one day. Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Stouffer said he hopes the legislation can be brought up for debate by the full Senate next week.

“There is some immediacy to this,” Stouffer, R-Napton, explained to committee members who then voted to advance the bill without dissent.

States face a Jan. 30 deadline to comply with federal mandates to require interstate truck drivers to provide proof from a medical professional that they are healthy enough to drive. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said late last year that as many as one-third of the states, including Missouri, had indicated they might not meet the deadline.

States that fail to comply with the mandate could lose 5 percent of their highway funds — about $30 million in Missouri’s case. If they remain out of compliance for a second year, that penalty doubles. But noncompliant states could receive a grace period. The federal agency sent Missouri a letter last year saying that states in violation of the medical certification requirements as of Feb. 1 will have to submit a plan demonstrating “an earnest intent to gain full compliance” on an acceptable timeline or else federal funds could be withheld beginning Oct. 1, 2014.

Stouffer said he hopes the quick legislative action will help show Missouri’s intent to comply.

Missouri already had about $20 million of federal funds redirected from road construction to highway safety efforts during the 2011 fiscal year because state law failed to match federal standards for drunken driving penalties. Missouri was one of 15 states failing to meet those standards and will continue to have its funds shifted until it changes its law.

To comply with the federal standards, Missouri’s legislation would eliminate some of the reasons for

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/6p_rtelNg5E/

Gov. Mark Dayton wants to spend millions of dollars to get thousands of Minnesotans back to work.

The bill the DFL governor unveiled Wednesday would pour $775 million into job-generating infrastructure projects and offer tax breaks to businesses that hire unemployed Minnesotans, recent college graduates and veterans.

Dayton said that although the economy is improving and the state is running a small budget surplus this year, unemployment remains too high.

“Despite our economic progress of the last few months, there [are] still 175,000 Minnesotans who are unemployed today,” he said. “We have returning Iraq and Afghan war veterans who can’t find jobs. We have thousands of young people graduating from our colleges and universities who are also looking for work.”

The governor’s proposal came two weeks before the start of the 2012 legislative session, where it could run into stiff opposition in the GOP-controlled House and Senate.

Dayton proposed a $3,000-per-employee tax credit for businesses that hire unemployed workers, veterans or recent graduates. The $35 million initiative, which he said could create as many as 10,000 jobs, would be paid for by ending certain tax breaks — something Republicans historically have opposed.

“While I concur with Governor Dayton’s goal to create more jobs in Minnesota, I disagree with an approach that spends more money without addressing needed reform and relies on short-term bonding projects to grow our economy,” House Speaker Kurt Zellers said in a statement. The Maple Grove Republican called instead for more business tax cuts and fewer corporate regulations as a means of stimulating job growth.

The meat of the bill is the $775 million bonding package, whose details are to be released next week. Supporters said they hope the bill passes in time for the upcoming construction season.

Minnesota’s construction industry “is in more than a recession. It is in a downright depression,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook.

The bonding bill will include $20 million in projects requested by the Department of Employment and Economic Development to help businesses expand in Minnesota.

Another $10 million would go to the Minnesota Investment Fund to attract new businesses to the state. Last year, the DFL claims, the

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/17n9QFYatmA/137150223.html

Gov. Martin O’Malley on Wednesday floated the idea of adding one cent to the sales tax to address Maryland’s budget problems, saying the money would give the state “flexibility” to pay for programs and to borrow more for road projects.

“If I had my druthers, I’d rather do the one penny on the sales tax,” O’Malley said during a radio interview before an audience in Annapolis. “That’s what I’d like to do. … That one penny could solve the problem.”

A 7 percent rate would give Maryland the second-highest sales tax in the country, along with five other states. California’s is the highest at 8.25 percent.

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  Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/3muQDsHNoS0/bs-md-sales-tax-20120111,0,1126841.story

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FRANKFORT, KY. — The agreement between Kentucky and Indiana to divide work on the Ohio River Bridges Project is a “mistake” that may open the door to legal action, Senate President David Williams said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters after the Senate adjourned, Williams said he has not been briefed on the plan reached by Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and announced in late December.

But he said he disagrees with letting Kentucky oversee financing and construction of a downtown bridge and its related parts, while Indiana would manage an eastern span and its approaches.

“How can you allege that this is one project?” Williams said. “What they’ve done is they’ve created two projects out of it. And I think that they quite possibly opened themselves up to litigation concerning whether this is one project or two projects now.”

Asked whether the Kentucky-Indiana agreement may lead to lawsuits, Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said in an email, “We don’t have a concern.”

Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson referred questions to the Transportation Cabinet.

“I haven’t heard any reservations expressed about the legality of what Gov. Beshear and Gov. Daniels have opted to do,” said Chuck Wolfe, a Cabinet spokesman.

In his remarks, Williams said questions about Kentucky’s funding role remain unanswered.

“We just haven’t been briefed whatsoever about it,” Williams said. “We look forward to being briefed.”

Wolfe said transportation officials have concentrated their efforts in the House, where the highway plan would be introduced.

The decision to split work on the bridges plan — two new crossings and a rebuilt Spaghetti Junction interchange near downtown — came after the two states couldn’t agree on a single method for building the entire project.

Each state would be responsible for the cost and building of its segment — each expected to cost about $1.3 billion.

Neither state has laid out

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/wYOu2yapDmA/Ohio-River-bridges

The debate over Iowa cities’ ability to employ cameras to issue citations for traffic violations will be reopened in the new legislative session that began this week, lawmakers said Wednesday.

A proposed state constitutional amendment barring cities from using “automated traffic law enforcement systems� was introduced Wednesday in the House, and similar measures will be rolled out in the weeks to come.

“It may be one of the hot issues you’ll be hearing a lot about,� said Rep. David Tjepkes, R-Gowrie and chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

The cameras are used to catch red-light runners and speeders in cities across the state, including Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Davenport and Council Bluffs.

Research has showed that red-light cameras have reduced traffic crashes in Iowa cities and experts believe speed cameras also make roads safer, but the cameras for years have generated complaints from drivers, civil libertarians and fiscal hawks.

Acknowledging those critiques, the House last year overwhelmingly passed legislation limiting fines from red-light and speeding cameras and placing regulations on how they could be deployed by cities. This year, Tjepkes said, the Republican-led chamber will consider an outright ban.

The proposed amendment introduced Wednesday does that, although Tjepkes indicated the legislation more likely to move would enact the ban in state law rather than the constitution, which requires approval from two successive General Assemblies and a statewide vote.

The Democratic Senate, however, declined to advance the House’s bill last year, and is likely continue pursuing a more methodical, information-gathering approach to the issue, Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Rielly said.

“I’d like to see what comes out of the House and have a conversation on that,� Rielly, D-Oskaloosa, said. “Before anything happens in the Senate, I want more information� on the cameras’ effectiveness, their impact on local governments and the perspectives of drivers who have been ticketed.

Amendment sponsor Jeremy Taylor, R-Sioux, said placing the ban in the constitution was necessary to give Iowans a voice on what has been a contentious issue in communities across the state.

“Iowans deserve the right to weigh in on this issue especially whether or not our laws are designed to be

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/z_VvlIZp-PY/

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Tuesday offered qualified support for a renewed legislative effort to catch and penalize overeager motorists who run red lights.

Reacting to plans announced Monday by Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney to legalize so-called red-light cameras, Malloy suggested that encouraging driver safety should be the overall goal, not reaping more revenue or saddling drivers with negative points toward higher insurance rates and the possible loss of their licenses.

“I’ve always supported electronic means,” Malloy told reporters in the Capitol. “This is not 100 years ago. There are different technologies.”

While the state office of the American Civil Liberties Union helped defeat the proposal last year amid charges that cameras intrude on civil rights, Malloy told reporters that he has favored such tactics to cut down on intersection crashes.

“Maybe a ticket issued that way doesn’t carry points, or it carries a lower fine,” Malloy said. “What we should really be using that technology for is to change habits, so the level of penalty, maybe, should be adjusted to allow the technology to be used to change the long-term behavior pattern.”

Looney, D-New Haven, plans to reintroduce the legislation when the General Assembly starts its brief, budget-adjustment session Feb. 8. Under the technology, violators’ license plates would be traced by police through photographs and fine notices would then be mailed to the owners of the vehicles.

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/Dud7WNyLDp8/Malloy-backs-red-light-cameras-2455339.php

Wednesday, Jan. 11


By Stephanie Snyder

Cronkite News

WASHINGTON _ Arizona got a failing grade Wednesday from a national highway safety group that said the state has adopted fewer than five of the 15 laws the group considers basic to traffic safety.

Only South Dakota ranked lower than Arizona in the ninth annual report from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. It rated Arizona poorly for its failure to adopt strict laws on teen driving, seat belt and motorcycle helmet use, and distracted driving, among others.

Arizona has “some of the weakest laws and yet they’re surrounded by states that have better laws,” said Jacqueline Gillan, the group’s president. “This is really a call to action for Arizona to step up and start passing these laws.”

Her group said crashes killed more than 700 people in Arizona in 2010, at a cost estimated by state officials at $2.7 billion.

“It doesn’t make sense when you look at the economic cost and carnage on the Arizona highways that they are still ignoring some really effective public health interventions that could really bring down deaths and injuries and costs for the state,” Gillan said.

But state officials challenged the report, saying the laws it identified as crucial “aren’t going to help us.”

A report on the website of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety says traffic deaths in Arizona of unrestrained vehicle occupants, alcohol-impaired drivers, motorcyclists without helmets and teen drivers all fell from 2006-2009. This in a state that does not have the strict laws for enforcing seat-belt use, requiring motorcycle helmets and restricting teen drivers that the highway safety group says are needed.

“We are following what our indicators are and pushing to do safety programs to save and prevent tragedies,” said Alberto Gutier, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. “We don’t have to consult or react

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/qjsT9UQYP9c/

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The state transportation department says new federal security requirements are causing longer wait times for people getting drivers’ licenses.

The department told lawmakers on Monday that the Real-ID Act has doubled the time it takes to inspect documents required for new licenses. Clerks also have to scan the paperwork. Officials say renewals are also taking longer.

He said he wants to minimize growth in government.

The Casper Star-Tribune (http://bit.ly/A0Z8Bt) reports that the department is requesting five new positions for drivers’ license offices because of the increased workload.

Gov. Matt Mead has only recommended two new positions as well as transferring one person from within the department to one of the field offices. He said he wants to minimize growth in government.

___

Information from: Casper Star-Tribune – Casper, http://www.trib.com

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/SJxrQHJMwDk/