Transportation funding will be tight

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002 | 11:20 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley said Tuesday that federal funds could be limited for an upcoming bill dealing with the nation's roads, buses and trains.

The two Nevada Democrats heard the wish lists of various transportation agencies from around the state at a forum at the Regional Transportation Commission office. Their recommendations would carry a price tag of $1.2 billion, or $200 million per year, over the six years funded by the bill.

But Reid said after the forum that the projects -- including a rail system connecting downtown Las Vegas to Henderson and ongoing work on Interstates 15 and 215 -- face an uncertain future if the Bush administration doesn't increase funds available for the bill.

"A lot of these projects are in danger, since the president has given us a number we can't live with," Reid said. "(Bush) is spending too much on Iraq and other things, when we can do both."

The bill, called the Transportation Equity Act of 2003, covers transportation funding for the whole country. Congress appropriates funding for the bill every five or six years. The 1998 version gave $218 billion for highways and transit programs nationwide for five years.

Although a six-year budget has not been proposed, the Bush administration set a limit at $23.2 billion for 2003, or $8.6 billion less than Congress asked for, a Reid staff member said.

Reid and Berkley serve on committees dealing with transportation that will spend most of next year hammering out the bill. Reid is the highest ranking member of the Senate Transportation Appropriations subcommittee.

Reid was the sole member of Nevada's congressional delegation who worked on the 1998 bill, though he didn't have as much power as he does now.

Jacob Snow, general manager for the RTC, showed a slide that depicted the center of the valley as a knot of traffic jams by the year 2025.

"We can no longer rely solely on road-building," he said. "The automobile will continue to be the primary mode of transportation, but we need to focus on alternatives."

The proposed alternatives include two commuter train routes and a new, larger bus that would stop at stations similar to those used by trains. The latter may be the first in use, with a projected completion date of November 2003, Snow said.

Tom Stephens, director of the Nevada Department of Transportation, said ongoing work on the Hoover Dam Bypass is a priority. His department received 13 bids Tuesday for the first of four stages in the project, with the lowest bid coming in at $21.1 million, or almost $7 million less than the projected cost.

Berkley said she hopes both parties will push for increasing funds available for the bill.