Lawmakers To Ask Voters To Steer More Money To Highways

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lawmakers are seeking to pump more money into road repairs and bridge work across Louisiana.

The proposals by Sen. Robert Adley, the Senate transportation committee chairman, received final legislative passage with a series of Senate votes Tuesday.

The constitutional amendments would change the rules of the state's "rainy day" fund to help provide more financing for roadwork.

They would steer dollars that currently would go into the rainy day fund instead to transportation work, generating an estimated $21 million over the next five years for projects — but much more in later years, estimated at as much as $100 million annually.

Because they would change the constitution, they would need voter approval.

Louisiana has a $12 billion backlog of transportation needs.

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Senate Bills 122, 202, 221 and 259: www.legis.la.gov