Inflation widens pothole in Massachusetts road repair budget

Chris Lisinski

BOSTON – The House’s point person on transportation did not even need to hear from a single city or town leader Tuesday before accurately forecasting how most would react to the latest annual road and bridge funding bill: that it simply did not offer enough money.

“We do tend to hear from some municipal officials each year — and it is sometimes as predictable as the birds coming north in the spring — that it’s never enough,” Transportation Committee Co-chair Rep. William Straus said as his panel dove into a public hearing on Gov. Maura Healey’s two-year, $400 million Chapter 90 proposal. “Of course it’s never enough. The unmet needs in terms of transportation projects and maintenance work is something I don’t think we’ll ever see fully funded.”

In what has become a yearly tradition on Beacon Hill, administration officials pitched the Transportation Committee on this year’s Chapter 90 bill, which would fund the state reimbursement program supporting local road and bridge repairs.

Healey’s bill would approve two years of money in a single swoop, fulfilling one major request municipal leaders have repeatedly made, without altering the $200 million per year allotment that has been the norm for more than a decade despite prices rising over that period.

Municipal officials continue to argue that $200 million accomplishes less today than it did when lawmakers first funded the program at that level in fiscal 2012, pointing to overall inflation and especially rising construction costs that have eaten away at their purchasing power.

Straus’s prediction quickly wound up coming true.

“You know, we are like the birds coming north, I guess, every year because there never is enough money. I’m sorry, Chairman Straus,” said Athol Town Manager Shaun Suhoski.

“No, I agree with you,” Straus replied.

Suhoski said as much as 90 percent of all road miles in the state fall under local jurisdiction and require maintenance at the municipal level. He added that cities and towns have put their own dollars on the table to match Chapter 90 funds and utilized “all of the tools” Beacon Hill has offered.

“But when you look at a Chapter 90 baseline that has declined in value by 65 percent or $131 million since the 2012 year that $200 million baseline was set, we’re really not asking for more money,” Suhoski said. “I think we’re seeking [for] the Legislature and the governor, and I need to keep the administration forefront, to undertake all options to increase that baseline.”

Many speakers at Tuesday’s hearing pointed out that state government has offered significant infrastructure repair resources to cities and towns on top of the Chapter 90 program. Last year’s iteration of the law included $200 million for Chapter 90, plus another $175 million in transportation-related grants.

Although Healey’s standalone Chapter 90 bill still proposes an average of $200 million per year, she also called in her annual state budget for supplementing the program with $100 million through the voter-approved surtax on high earners.

“I’m both appreciative, but I do have to sing the song of the birds with regret,” Suhoski told the Transportation Committee.

Dave Desrosiers, the highway superintendent in Granby, said asphalt costs have about doubled in the past eight years during which annual funding for Chapter 90 has remained flat save for occasional adjustments or additions.

“If you tied something to the cost of not just inflation, but the cost of construction materials, we wouldn’t have to come back and keep explaining to you every year why we’re running short,” Desrosiers said.

Calls for more funding came not just from individual city and town leaders but from their major industry groups, too.

Adrienne Núñez, a legislative analyst with the Massachusetts Municipal Association, urged the committee to continue “building on these investments” while warning about “a considerable reduction in purchasing power that communities continue to face.” Georgia Barlow, a government affairs specialist with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, called on the Legislature to boost Chapter 90 funding to at least $350 million per year “to more closely match the needs of infrastructure projects across the commonwealth.”

Last year, Healey also offered a two-year, $400 million bond authorization for Chapter 90, but House and Senate Democrats opted against the multi-year approach and pared it back down to a single year.

Municipal leaders have argued that knowing their state reimbursement outlook for an additional year would help them better prepare for roadwork. Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said the approach allows planning of “larger and more impactful transportation projects.”

Quincy Sen. John Keenan, who supports the two-year approach, said during the hearing that it also “moves things more quickly,” pointing out that the Legislature did not reach final agreement on last year’s Chapter 90 bill until late July.

“That adds an element of, a sense of not having security that the money would be there because it just took too long,” Keenan said. “You know it’s coming, but it really does hinder, I think, the contracting process for roadwork.”

Straus asked Gulliver to follow up after the hearing with data about how much Chapter 90 funding authorized last year still has not been spent. His inquiry, he said, had something to do with former Gov. Mitt Romney.

“We once had a governor who then moved back to Utah, as I recall, who had sent out press releases while he was governor, or MassDOT then did, threatening to take the money away. No one is suggesting that,” Straus said. “And I don’t think [Romney] is anymore, either, from whatever the area code is out there. But I think it’s worth knowing how much money remains available from our prior authorization years that the cities and towns can already draw on for these Chapter 90 projects.”