Governor Jack Markell's Weekly Message
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Governor Jack Markell’s weekly message featured a pitch from Transportation Secretary Shailen Bhatt for Markell’s infrastructure investment plan.
Bhatt emphasized that all Delawareans have a stake in maintaining the state’s roads and bridges and encouraged the General Assembly to approve the governor's five-year Transportation Investment Plan. That plan would be funded by a ten cent gas tax hike and a borrowing plan that allows the state to continue to pay down its current debts.
"The result is $500 million invested in Delaware over the next five years to increase road safety, ease congestion and support jobs by making it easier to do business here," said Bhatt. “In the process we’ll put people to work on construction sites, at engineering firms and at supplier companies."
Bhatt says the funds would support a variety of projects, including widening route 1 by Christiana Mall to reduce traffic; improving on Route 1 intersections in Kent County on the way to Delaware's beaches; and replacing pipes under roads in Sussex County to prevent pavement from collapsing.
Gov. Markell first proposed his plan at his State of the Speech in last month, but it received a lukewarm response from lawmakers.
Full text of Governor Jack Markell’s weekly message
We all depend on a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system. Whether you use Delaware’s roads, buses or rails to get to work, travel with family or transact business, you have a stake in how well they function now and in the future.
Last month, Governor Markell asked the General Assembly to approve a five year plan to invest $100 million per year in improving our transportation network, putting thousands of Delawareans back to work and closing the growing hole in our transportation trust fund that is delaying critical projects.
The plan has two main parts: first, it includes a 10 cent increase in our motor fuel tax, which costs the average driver less than $5 per month and keeps our tax lower than Pennsylvania and Maryland. Second, we’d borrow $50 million per year, a rate that still allows us to pay down our transportation debts.
The result is $500 million invested in Delaware over the next five years to increase road safety, ease congestion and support jobs by making it easier to do business here. We’d finally widen route 1 by Christiana Mall to reduce traffic; we’d make it easier and safer to get to the beach by working on Route 1 intersections in Kent County; and we’d replace pipes under roads in Sussex County to prevent pavement from collapsing.
And there are dozens more projects like those.
In the process we’ll put people to work on construction sites, at engineering firms and at supplier companies. Governor Markell’s First State Transportation Investment Plan will fix and improve our roads and bridges. It will boost our economy. And it will keep Delaware moving forward.
