MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — An eastern panhandle state senator wants to fix the state’s roads, but he understands there will be a price to pay.
Sen. Charles Trump (R-Morgan, 15) said Monday on MetroNews affiliate WEPM in Martinsburg that he has a constitutional amendment already drafted that would authorize the legislature to borrow $2 billion over the next five years.
“It will be up to the legislature to identify and establish the revenue source,” according to Trump. “It’s about $120 million a year.”
When paired with money being allocated for roads by the federal government, they can get things headed in the right direction, Trump said.
“It’d be really nice to have some state dollars to use for things that we can’t use the federal money for,” Trump said.
Repairing the state’s highways will come at significant cost, according to Trump.
“We’re going to have to come with some proposal for a revenue measure with that,” Trump said.
TRIP, a Washington based national transportation group, found in May that 29 percent of West Virginia’s rural, non-interstate roads are in severe disrepair.
The state ranked sixth in the country for roads in poor condition and rural bridges are ranked at 16th in the country for poor condition with 13 percent of those bridges considered structurally deficient.