10:06am: Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval

Highways commissioner says finding money will be critical

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The new Commissioner for the West Virginia Division of Highways comes to the job with a passion for transportation and for infrastructure. Tom Smith also comes with a wealth of knowledge about the inter workings of how funding for road is generated. Smith worked for many years with the Appalachian Regional Commission and the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington D.C. He knows roads and understands how critical they are to the livelihood of a population.

“Transportation is a passion,” he said on MetroNews Talkline. “We save lives and it makes people’s lives better with what we do in transportation.”

Smith, like other members of the Justice Administration, wasn’t looking for a career change. He was successful and content with his work in Washington. However, he saw the call from Jim Justice as a way to use his expertise to potentially improve the lives of his fellow West Virginians back at home.

“Governor Justice has charged all of us with aggressively turning over every stone, taking a look at what all of the options are, look at the implications and trying-to figure out how we can invest in infrastructures,” he said. “Around there country, there’s no disagreement at all we’ve got to invest more in infrastructure.”

But the stumbling block is finding something to invest. The federal government sends about $425 Million to West Virginia annually for road work. The state dedicates about that same amount. Smith said that isn’t nearly enough to do the job. Therefore, more money needs to be found. He’s charged by Justice with finding ways to get it done.

“There are pluses and minuses with just about every mechanism,” said Smith. “You think volatility of the market place is taken care of, but you find out the mechanism didn’t work the way you thought it would. What we want to do is take a broad look at all the options and look at the pluses and minuses and figure out how we invest more in infrastructure.”

Justice himself hinted at where the money may come from in Monday’s inaugural address.  He suggested taking state revenue to Wall Street and taking advantage of currently low interest rates to jump start construction on state roads immediately.  The Justice plan is expected to be more fully revealed in the days and weeks ahead.

Smith was non-committal when asked about specifics. He rationalized to cite examples would falsely give the impression one road project may be placed ahead of another in order of priority. He did stress the backbone of the state is the interstate system and the Appalachian Corridors were the “second backbone.”

“You focus on those because that’s where the goods, the freight, and the people are,” said Smith. “But West Virginia has a unique situation of having so many of the other roads to take care of and those roads make a difference in the lives of our citizens, getting to the grocery store and the hospital.”





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