AUGUSTA (AP) – Pointing to two concrete chunks that had broken loose from a Bath overpass to illustrate his point, the co-chairman of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee made a case Friday for what he called the first major re-crafting of Maine’s Highway Fund in three decades.

Sen. Dennis Damon said the present highway funding staple, the fuel tax, is not sufficient to meet the state’s transportation needs.

Highway fund revenues have “flattened out,” he told the transportation panel, and are expected to actually decline over time, in part because people are buying more fuel-efficient automobiles. At the same time, the cost of maintaining and building highways is rising, he said.

“This condition that we’re facing … is not getting better despite our best efforts,” Damon, D-Trenton, said as he presented his bill to restructure the transportation revenue system.

Under his scheme, the highway fund would receive roughly twice the $700 million or so it now gets for a two-year budget cycle. The highway fund is separate from the state’s general fund, which covers all of the state’s other non-transportation needs.

Damon’s bill sets a 20-year goal to modernize 1,900 miles of state highways that have not been reconstructed in more than over 50 years, and to replace or substantially rehabilitate roughly one-third of Maine’s aging bridge inventory.

To achieve those goals, the bill would create two new funds to be administered by the Maine Municipal Bond Bank.

The first would be funded by some of the sales tax revenues the state now collects on vehicles and automotive accessories. Over time, 1 penny of the 5 cents collected on each dollar in sales would go to the fund, which could issue revenue bonds and use the sales tax revenues to pay debt service.

The second would take 4 percent of the excise tax revenues that now go Maine’s larger municipalities, also to pay debt service on revenue bonds. The 4 percent would increase over five years to a maximum of 20 percent.

Damon acknowledged that both components are likely to face opposition as the bill is deliberated, since they redirect revenues that are now going to the General Fund or to towns and cities to transportation.

But the senator said something must be done to enable the state to keep pace with a deterioration of its transportation system – and his proposal is the only one on the table this session.

“We do have a crisis,” Damon said.

The legislation received support at least in concept from the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Maine Tourism Association and the Maine Automobile Dealers Association, and no one spoke in opposition.

Some organizations took issue with details in the bill, but most stood in support of the idea of setting long-term capital goals for the transportation system, as Damon’s bill does.

“Maybe you do not agree with these goals,” said John Melrose, a former state transportation commissioner who now represents the Maine Better Transportation Association.

“Change them to suit your views, but let’s at least put a steering wheel into the car so we can drive in a straight line and get somewhere.”

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