Senate president pushes for transportation plan

? Senate leaders want to push a comprehensive transportation plan next year, even though the state faces financial problems that some say are worse than anything since the Great Depression.

Senate President Steve Morris started the effort by switching Sen. Dwayne Umbarger from leading the Ways and Means Committee to running the Transportation Committee, which will craft any proposal for the chamber after the Legislature convenes Jan. 12.

The current 10-year transportation plan is due to expire next summer and Morris said a replacement is needed even though the state faces a $141 million deficit in the current budget. Left unchecked, that could expand to $1 billion by the end of the next budget year on June 30, 2010.

“We obviously have very little money to do anything, but once it is in place that sends a message to the people, even if we have to start slow for the first couple of years,” Morris said. “We may have to start slow and implement bigger projects down the road, but if that is the case, so be it.”

Morris said another concern is how contractors might react if there’s no plan to replace the current one.

“We don’t want our contractors to get discouraged if there’s no plan in place and start downsizing. We want them to be able to start participating,” he said.

President-elect Barack Obama is proposing to dramatically ramp up infrastructure spending to help boost the country’s crippled economy after he takes office Jan. 20.

“That should tie nicely with what we’re trying to do,” Morris said.