Impact of transportation budget will stun Ohio's communities.

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 1995--The Ohio Department of Transportation's budget for the next biennium (FY 1996-97) is sounding harsh alarms to the state's 16 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs).

As Ohio's MPOs meet deadlines for their completing their four year Transportation Improvement Programs (TIPs), they are discovering that funds for new construction projects are not available.

Members of Ohio's many road improvement advocacy groups are also dismayed to learn that projects they believed to be high in priority are being delayed for periods even longer than already experienced.

``It was a bombshell. It shattered our expectations,'' said Michael Lilly, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) senior project coordinator, commenting on delays to the critical Morse-Stelzer interchange in Columbus. He added, ``All we can do is try to get priorities moving based on what ODOT gives central Ohio.''

And Columbus is only an example. No city or community will escape delays to projects long identified as crucial to their economic well being as the vastly scaled down state Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) becomes public over the next two weeks.

Attempting to clarify the volatile situation is David V. Finley, managing director of the Ohio Construction Information Association (OCIA), a coalition of groups, firms and individuals created to inform the public about Ohio's infrastructure improvements, deficiencies and economic significance.

``The downward trend in new highway construction is alarming,'' says Finley. ``Not only are many projects not going to go forward, but ODOT, under pressure to fund desperately needed new capacity construction projects, has been forced to cut back on routine resurfacing projects as well as vitally needed engineering work required to keep new projects along in the pipeline.

``OCIA does not take public positions on funding issues but rather wishes to encourage full and open debate based on real fiscal information,'' explains Finley. He does, however, mention at least a couple of potential remedies which warrant immediate debate. One situation would be to remove the State Highway Patrol from gasoline tax funding to some other dedicated source such as license plate fees or general fund.

Additional propositions for discussion totalling $210 million annually may be found in the report ``Highway Funding in Ohio'' which OCIA has just prepared. It suggests cutting a host of ``diversions'' from the state transportation budget as well as many non-construction items such as noise walls, bike paths, funds to pay the hospital bills of indigent victims of accidents on state roads and so forth.

The OCIA report also explains some of the history leading up to the current crisis. The bottom line?

``We've got to start finding construction money somewhere... and at the state level,'' says Finley. ``All the rhetoric about coercing the federal government into changing policies to benefit Ohio's highways is clouding the issue.''

Editor's note: A copy of the aforementioned report is available

by calling OCIA: 800/860-5511.

CONTACT: The Ohio Construction Information Association,

Columbus

David V. Finley, 614/846-8390 or 800/860-5511