Disagreements over the financing of a major highway project in west Alabama are likely to be voiced in the upcoming legislative session as more State House leaders communicate concern, and at least one is calling for more oversight on the transportation department.
The state recently borrowed $730 million to complete the West Alabama Corridor and will pay off the bonds over a twenty-year period with revenue accrued from the 2019 gas tax increase. Some lawmakers have expressed frustration over the fact that the project is 100% state funded (most highway projects operate on an 80/20 federal/state split) and uses a significant amount of the gas tax revenue on a single project located through mostly rural areas.
Concerns have made it all the way to the Alabama Speaker of the House’s level.
“I think the thing it really bothered me about it—and of course I get along with Governor Ivey and we’ve had a really good working relationship and I certainly don’t have a problem with the corridor—but I think the method upon which it was funded was a mistake,” Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said.
“I’m just really disappointed, really disappointed,” he said. “There’s a better way to do it.”
Ledbetter, a longtime ally of the Governor, said he’s not one to call people out publicly, and he’s not doing that now, but he has looked for alternative solutions.
“From the speaker’s standpoint, if there was a way that we could stop it legislatively, or some other way, I would try to do it, but we’ve researched with our attorneys to see what we can do, and it’s really out of our court, unfortunately,” he said.
The West Alabama Corridor project was announced by Governor Ivey in 2021 and has been a priority in her second term. Converting most of Highway 43 and State Route 69 into a four-lane thoroughfare will create generational economic development opportunities and lessen traffic congestion on I-65, the Governor’s administration has maintained.
Ivey spokeswoman Gina Maiola recently said the 2019 gas tax increase, known as the Rebuild Alabama Act, makes difficult but necessary projects like the West Alabama Corridor possible.
“After Governor Ivey championed the Rebuild Alabama Act in 2019, she identified this project, which was decades in the making, as a transportation priority project of hers,” Maiola said. “It was important to the governor, not only because she hails from rural west Alabama, but also because this project would breathe life into a region of the state that had not seen a major investment like this in decades. In unsurprising fashion, Gov. Ivey does not only say she is for something but found an actual way to make it happen.”
Last month, House Speaker Pro Tem Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, accused the Ivey administration of “maxing out the credit card” with the bond issue as her last term ends.
Pringle is now introducing a bill to create a five-person State Transportation Commission to oversee ALDOT and make director appointments. Currently, the ALDOT director is a governor’s appointee.
Pringle, who has differed with ALDOT Director John Cooper in the past, previously sponsored this bill in 2020.
Pringle has said he’d like to see ALDOT managed like the Alabama Port Authority, which has a board appointed by the governor and approved by the Alabama Senate.
“Under a professional board, we now have the second-fastest growing port in the nation,” Pringle said.
Pringle acknowledges the need for more north-south corridors in the state, but like Ledbetter, he questions the method and funding. While he commends ALDOT for its recent work repairing state bridges, he’s said there needs to be more continuity and long-term planning.
Regarding Pringle’s suggestion, Ledbetter has said there will likely be discussions on more checks and balances in the future.
“With the Legislature being the appropriators, I certainly think there should be oversight from the legislative body,” Ledbetter said.
Ivey spokeswoman Maiola said people of every part of Alabama elect the governor to set transportation policies.
“So, Gov. Ivey would certainly oppose any efforts by the Legislature to hinder future administrations’ ability to pursue infrastructure projects the people of Alabama elected them to do,” she said.
