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Several business leaders attended the regional meeting for Governor’s Task Force on Transportation Infrastructure Investment.

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One Acadiana President and CEO Jason El Koubi discusses issues
during the regional meeting for the Governor's transportation task force

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St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot speaks during the meeting
Wednesday at the LITE Center in Lafayette.

Governor’s Task Force on Transportation Infrastructure Investment meets in Lafayette

LAFAYETTE — How exactly new revenue is generated to help improve the state’s transportation infrastructure remains open for discussion.
However that comes about, officials agree new revenue in that area is critical to move the state forward. The state’s top elected official is pushing for ideas to help make that happen.
In June, Gov. John Bel Edwards created an 18-member Task Force on Transportation Infrastructure Investment to look into viable options to help reduce the $12.7 billion backlog for transportation projects, as well as fund “mega-projects.” The I-49 Lafayette
Connector is one such project.
The panel is due to submit their recommendations to the Governor by Jan. 1, 2017.
Several of the members met with local leaders and members of the public Wednesday morning at the LITE Center in Lafayette. The Acadiana Planning Commission, One Acadiana, and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority co-hosted the meeting. The event is the fifth meeting on the task force’s regional “listening tour” that is taking place across the state.
Shawn Wilson, the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), is the co-chair of the task force.
“I want to thank all of you who have stepped up to the plate to convene for a regional conversation,” Wilson said. “We want to hear from these communities about projects that are important. Unlike other plans in the past, we need to concentrate on funding those projects. We want to hear from the community on how to best fund those projects.
“At the beginning of the year, this task force will make a recommendation to Gov. Edwards for things that he should consider doing at the very next legislative session to make an investment in infrastructure.”
The DOTD breaks the state nine districts. Much of Acadiana falls in District 3. The area includes 2,414 miles of roadway. The state spent more than $37 million last year to improve 45.2 miles of that total roadway.
“If you do that amount each year,” Wilson said, “by the time you get back to the beginning, you are looking at the road having long expired.”
To improve road projects, many have suggested an increase of the gasoline tax, something that has not been done in nearly 30 years.
“The 16 cents that you pay has lost a tremendous amount of its value as the cost of everything has gone up,” Wilson said. “We do not have the ability to go forward to continue to do things without the dollars to make it happen.
“It just doesn’t add up.”
St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot, who worked for the DOTD for 38 years prior to becoming an elected official, said more money is definitely needed.
“I will probably get impeached for saying it,” Fontenot said with a laugh. “It’s all about more money and getting the people to support it. We all have to be advocates. It’s something that improves our quality of life and economic development.”
Fontenot said his parish passed a 15-year tax in 2013 designed to improve roads.
“It was a two-and-a-half penny sales tax,” Fontenot said. “We had the worst roads in the state. Now we have paved $50 million worth. We are going to do another $20 in the next year-and-a-half.
“No one likes to pay taxes, but you get out there and tell people truths about how the money will be spent.”
One Acadiana President and CEO Jason El Koubi said he feels support will be there if people know the funds will be strictly dedicated for transportation improvements, such as the I-49 project.
“It’s clear the Acadiana business community will support a transportation funding solution if it’s structured in the right way,” El Koubi said. “We need to know that if we support an increase in the gas tax, that it will be spent on infrastructure, not on state police or administration.
“We need to have confidence that the revenues will be used to support and prioritize megaprojects and be used to provide reoccurring and sustainable funding to pay down the ($12.7 billion) backlog, which includes projects in all of our parishes.”

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