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All eyes on the capitol as session nears
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LSU poll: citizens support higher gas taxes, but only if funds dedicated to transportation
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A new statewide poll says a majority of Louisiana citizens support raising the gasoline tax by as much as 20 cents per gallon if the funds are dedicated to transportation.
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LSU's annual survey shows wide support for transportation funding
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"A majority of respondents favor raising the state's tax on gasoline for improving highways, bridges and other infrastructure," according to the report on the poll, which was conducted by the LSU Public Policy Research Lab. The report says "there is strong, bipartisan support for raising the state's tax on gasoline up to an additional 15 cents per gallon."
Republican support for a 20-cent-per-gallon hike drops below 50 percent, but a majority of all citizens (53 percent) support a 20 cent increase.
The gasoline tax information is part of the 16th annual
Louisiana Survey,
sponsored by the Reilly Center
for Media and Public Affairs at Louisiana State University's Manship School of Mass
Communication. The survey covers many policy areas, including transportation, health care and education. Read more about the Louisiana Survey here.
The survey was released less than two weeks before the Louisiana Legislature convenes for its 2017 regular session at the capitol, where it is expected to debate a gasoline tax increase for transportation improvements. Gov. John Bel Edwards, whose Task Force on Transportation Infrastructure Investment concluded that transportation needs an extra $700 million a year, said it will be difficult to find enough votes in the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a 20-cent increase. The current state gas tax is 20 cents per gallon, with four pennies being dedicated to the TIMED program.
Reportedly, one or more Republican representatives are working on a bill to improve transportation funding with the expectation that such a bill might have a better chance of winning passage than one sponsored by a Democrat. As of Wednesday, no bill had been
pre-filed. The session begins April 10.
Here are the results of the survey for each level of gas tax increase:
5-cent increase
Democrats, 67 percent favor
Republicans, 76 percent favor
Overall, 73 percent favor
10-cent increase
Democrats, 58 percent favor
Republicans, 55 percent favor
Overall, 58 percent favor
15-cent increase
Democrats, 64 percent favor
Republicans, 54 percent favor
Overall, 61 percent favor
20-cent increase
Democrats, 62 percent favor
Republicans, 42 percent favor
Overall, 53 percent favor
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A message from ACEC national on the Trump budget
(Note: Matt Reiffer, ACEC's Director of Transportation Programs, sent this analysis of President Trump's budget proposal to ACEC Transportation Committee members on March 16.)
Today the President released his budget blueprint for Fiscal Year 2018. This is not the full-blown budget, just a broad overview of his proposal; the full budget is expected sometime in May.
The President's 2018 budget will request $16.2 billion for U.S. DOT's discretionary budget - those programs funded through the General Fund on an annual basis, not programs like highways, transit, and airports that are funded through trust funds. This would be a $2.4 billion or 13 percent decrease from the 2017 level.
Here are some of the proposed reductions:
- Limiting transit New Starts capital investment funding to projects with existing full funding grant agreements;
- Eliminating TIGER multimodal grants; and
- Eliminating support for Amtrak's long distance routes and refocusing funds on state-supported routes and the Northeast Corridor.
The budget also includes a statement of support for moving air traffic control services out of the FAA and into a new private, not-for-profit entity, as proposed by House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster last year.
You can read the full blueprint here.
The budget omits any details on the $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan. In the introduction to the major agency highlights, the document states that the administration will "evaluate investment options along with commonsense regulatory, administrative, organizational, and policy changes to encourage investment and speed project delivery.... The Administration will provide more budgetary, tax, and legislative details in the coming months." Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said yesterday that their initial proposal will focus on eliminating what they view as inefficient programs before moving money into more efficient infrastructure programs later this year.
It is important to note that the president's overall proposal to boost defense spending and reduce domestic spending will require a statutory change by Congress to the Budget Control Act, as well as enactment of individual appropriations bills for FY 2018 at those levels. Many of the programs being targeted for cuts are very popular in Congress, and any deal to change the overall budget balance will be very challenging.
It's also important to note that Congress isn't even done with FY 2017 funding yet. Transportation and other programs are currently flat-lined under a continuing resolution, which is set to expire on April 28. We are pushing for a final bill that unlocks the increases for highway and transit programs under the second year of the FAST Act.
We'll disseminate more information as it becomes available.
This is also a good time to remind you that it's not too late to register for our upcoming Annual Convention and Legislative Summit, April 23-26 here in Washington, DC. There will be no better time to join with your colleagues to communicate directly with your lawmakers about the important of infrastructure investment and other key industry priorities.
Our committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 24, at 3:30 p.m. We'll be discussing these and other issues in much more detail.
Click here for more information and to register.
Thanks!
Matthew Reiffer
mreiffer@acec.org
Director, Transportation Programs
ACEC National Headquarters
Washington DC
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ACEC/L creates Strategic Planning Task Force
The ACEC/L Board of Governors recently put together a Strategic Planning Task Force to better define and guide the organization and its focus: to p
rotect, educate and advance the business of consulting engineering.
The board's five strategic goals are:
- Increase membership by 25% through diversification and engagement
- Become recognized as the voice and advocate of the engineering business community
- Become recognized by all Louisiana engineering companies as the primary source on business practice
- Maintain a highly effective board and committee structure
- Enhance the financial strength of ACECL
The task force is comprised of five
committees, each of which is charged with developing and executing tasks associated with each strategic goal. The committees and their members are:
Membership
Raymond Reaux, Leader
David Dupre
Michael Thomassie
David Leslie
Scott Smith
Voice and Advocate
Bob Schmidt, Leader
Andree Cortez
Kenny Smith
Mike McGaugh
Mark Lambert
Primary Source Recognition
Kurt Evans, Leader
Alison Michel
Fannie Bennett
Rob Delaune
Mark Lambert
Board & Committee Structure
Tony Arikol, Leader
Lynne Roussel
Kurt Evans
Raymond Reaux
Kimberly McDaniel
Financial Strength
Andy Craig, Leader
Craig Campbell
Brad Graff
Lee Underwood
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ACEC/L narrowing focus on "Power of 3"
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Robert Schmidt
ACEC/L President |
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"I have so many things to do..."
Yes we have thi
s challenge in our personal lives and our businesses, and we have this at ACEC Louisiana, too! As we try to accomplish more, there is a risk that we spread ourselves too thin and end up accomplishing less. I laid out a plan in July to take advantage of "the power of three" during my one-year term as ACEC Louisiana president. A mentor once said that, if we focus on just three priorities, we can achieve them and often find that the smaller priorities are contained within our larger ones. Here are my three focus areas for ACEC/L this year, with the prospect for benefits extending across our engineering industry:
ACEC Louisiana Strategic Business Plan
Each of us has a strategic plan to guide our business: What do we aspi
re to
be as an organization, and how do we get there? Once we arrive, how do we sustain and continue to thrive?
Louisiana is 25th in population amongst the 50 states, while ACEC/L is
8th in its chapter membership and one of the most effective state chapters in representing the business of engineering. This is quite an accomplishment! While ACEC/L is stronger than ever because of its member firms and the dedication of our board and past presidents, now is not the time to rest but to leverage our strengths. At our January board meeting ACEC/L adopted a draft strategic business plan that builds on what we have accomplished with the expectation of achieving even more. Our new plan will regularly measure the successes and failures in attaining our goals and will account for changing times and market conditions. While the plan is to guide ACEC/L, I believe the results will benefit beyond just our boundaries.
Consultant Procurement Initiative
One of the core missions of ACEC/L is to advocate on behalf of the consulting engineering community for qualifications based selection (QBS) in procurement at all levels - federal, state, and local. Just as the public expects to receive medical care from highly qualified and trained doctors, the public also should expect services from highly qualified and trained engineers. These expectations are driven by the safety and welfare of the public.
Spurred by statistics indicating that "non-engineering factors" had become more prevalent than "engineering factors" in the outcomes of engineering consultant procurement, ACEC/L initiated an effort in 2013 in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to identify potential adjustments to the DOTD's consultant procurement process. Our joint goal was for these changes to lead to more reliance on the qualifications/engineering factors in making procurement decisions. This change would benefit the agency by having better access to its most qualified providers, it would raise industry standards for quality of consultant performance, and it would benefit the public.
New Transportation Funding for Louisiana
As my third focus area, ACEC/L and I are fully committed to helping state leaders pass new transportation funding in the 2017 session of the legislature, as well as advocate in Washington where we can for more federal attention. Our role is leadership, advocacy, messaging, funding support and anything else needed to get the job done. Once new funding is achieved, we must work with Louisiana's engineering community to ensure we have a capable pool to provide quality engineering services for the expanded needs.
Louisiana's industry leaders have clamored for years about the need to increase Louisiana's transportation funding stream. Now, with Governor Edwards leading the way, the opportunity for increased dedicated state funding for transportation may be attainable. While some of the political leadership road blocks from past years are cleared, Louisiana still has hurdles that we all must work to clear -- other parts of the state budget have funding shortfalls and motivated constituencies, as well.
The outlook above and the optimist in me say our transportation and other public infrastructure funding will increase significantly in the next 6 to 24 months. The combination of new state and federal funding could double or triple the size of Louisiana's current transportation program. In this column last year, there was concern that Louisiana's pool of available qualified and capable engineering talent may not be adequate to even meet the demands of yesterday's program size. As an engineering industry in Louisiana, the challenge now becomes: how do we meet the increased needs of a larger program while still providing quality work and great service to our clients? I encourage everyone to keep an eye on the next few months and consider what we can and will do to meet the needs. I don't have a ready answer for this but believe we will find one working together.
I want to thank my board and the staff at ACEC/L for the privilege to serve as this year's President.
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ACEC/L, DOTD working to improve procurement process
(Note: This update from Executive Director Dan Mobley and President Bob Schmidt was sent to ACEC/L members on March 8.)
In January 2017, the ACEC/L Board of Governors voted to endorse recommended changes to the DOTD procurement and contracting process. This was the culmination of a multi-year effort between the two entities that began almost five years ago. We believe this is an appropriate time to recap the history of the initiative and to lay out the next steps.
ACEC/L approached DOTD in 2012 about creating a joint effort to make changes to DOTD's procurement process. Both groups wanted the process to align more closely with Qualifications-Based Selection factors rather than non-engineering factors. This is one of ACEC/L's primary focus areas in advocating on behalf of its member firms, and DOTD maintains an interest in aligning its program and project needs to the most suitable consultant providers. DOTD agreed to work closely with the consulting community while rightfully maintaining its role as owner of the process and the final arbiter of any proposed changes, including those made in January by the ACEC/L board.
In the spring of 2013, five sub-groups, comprised of DOTD personnel and consulting engineers, began to study and discuss the procurement, contracting, contract administration, QA/QC and claims processes. Each of these sub-groups met separately to drill down into issues and reach consensus on recommendations. As with any massive group effort, some "low-hanging fruit" issues were resolved relatively quickly, and the ACEC/L board adopted 10 proposed improvements in June 2015.
Participants from both organizations continued to work diligently to conclude recommendations to improve the complex consultant procurement initiative. Each proposal was discussed, and both parties carefully weighed the consequences of each recommendation to get to the point where we are today.
Along the way, ACEC/L kept its members informed of progress while giving committee members enough room to negotiate a fair and equitable outcome. Nearly two dozen engineers from small, medium and large firms in Louisiana participated in these discussions, and dozens more on the ACEC/L Transportation Committee were briefed regularly on progress. Some of the ongoing meetings, notification, and discussions over the last four years include:
- Nov. 27, 2012 ACEC/L Transportation Committee meeting
- March 26, 2013 ACEC/L Transportation Committee meeting
- Article in the ACEC/L Summer 2013 newsletter
- Nov. 12, 2013 ACEC/L Transportation Committee meeting
- Sept. 23, 2014 ACEC/L Transportation Committee meeting
- Article in the ACEC/L Summer 2015 newsletter
- Feb. 11, 2016 ACEC/L Transportation Committee meeting
In addition to these notices, ACEC/L and DOTD made various presentations to groups across Louisiana to discuss the working group and its efforts. It was a much-talked about topic at recent statewide conferences, including the 2016 bi-annual DOTD Transportation Conference, Project Outlook and Critical Issues Conference. Finally, ACEC/L President Schmidt reported the board's most recent action in the Spring 2017 issue of the Louisiana Engineer and Surveyor Journal.
While endorsing the recommended changes in January, the ACEC/L Board of Governor made it clear that it reserved the right to forward comments to DOTD relative to the changes. Meanwhile, DOTD has indicated it also is soliciting comments from the consultant community and will accept and consider those comments prior to presenting formal recommendations to the Chief Engineer and Secretary. DOTD has indicated it does not anticipate taking any action before Fall 2017.
ACEC/L would like to publicly thank DOTD for its open approach to improving the client-consultant relationship and for its above-board approach in ensuring that all parties have a voice in changes that affect their business. We are pleased that the ACEC/L-DOTD partnership model to achieve best practices in consultant procurement has not gone unnoticed by other public agencies in Louisiana. Based on our work with DOTD, ACEC/L has expanded to include joint efforts with 4 other public agencies in a similar process to affect positive change. ACEC/L encourages its members to learn, participate and comment on our activities. We appreciate your involvement in our profession and look forward to our joint continued accomplishments going forward.
Should you ever have any topics for discussion or questions on any ongoing ACEC/L activities, feel free to contact us or any members of our Board of Governors.
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Sign up by April 11 to see the greatest golfers in the world
ACEC/L is extending an opportunity until April 11 to a select group of volunteers to be
a part of the behind-the-scenes action at the
2017 Zurich Classic golf tournament
in New Orleans on April 27-30.
Every year since 2013, ACEC/L volunteers operate ShotLink laser equipment that tracks and records the golf professionals' shots during the tournament. This is a fun volunteer opportunity that helps raise money for children's charities in Louisiana (learn more about the foundation and the charities it supports at
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ShotLink equipment records shot distance and is simple to use
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By volunteering as a ShotLink operator, you help Fore!Kids save money
they otherwise would spend to hire operators. Your commitment can be as little as one six-hour shift, or you can volunteer to take as many as eight shifts over the four days for which volunteers are needed, Thursday through Sunday, April 27-30.
So far, Fore!Kids has raised more than $30 million for charitable organizations in Louisiana, and because the golf tournament proceeds absorb all of their administrative costs, 100% of the funds Fore!Kids receives goes directly to the charities. So far, ACEC/L has provided near 700 volunteer hours to this worthwhile project.
By signing up, you get:
- a parking pass good for the entire tournament
- a badge good for entry for the entire tournament
- an official Zurich Classic volunteer shirt
- an official Zurich Classic hat
- an opportunity for you and your company to participate in a meaningful charitable event that makes a difference in the lives of children.
Again, you get this all for free! But you must sign up by April 11!
Here's how to take advantage of this deal:
- Check your calendar for Thursday, April 27 through Sunday, April 30, and decide when you can join us. Shifts are 6:30 am-12:30 pm and 12:30 pm-6:30 pm.
- Email us by April 11 at acecl.volunteer@gmail.com and tell us when you can volunteer. Please get back to us as soon as possible to accommodate scheduling.
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Welcome NEW ACEC/L MEMBERS!
Johnathan M. Coates, P.E.
WDG, LLC
W.F. Baird & Associates Ltd.
NOLA Engineering. LLC
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Not a member of ACEC/L? Join today!
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Louisiana members enj
oy resources, benefits and access that non-members envy.
ACECL has four active chapters in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Orleans and Shreveport that hold regular luncheons with local and regional public officials. These luncheons are a great way for members to stay professionally connected with their colleagues and community.
ACECL members also attend ACEC national events featuring insights, forecasts and nationally known speakers that no other professional organization can offer. Plus, ACECL members have access to a menu of benefits, including Employee Benefits Plans (which include life, retirement and health plans) office supply and opportunities for business development and training.
Interested?
We'd love to talk to you about how you and your firm can enjoy the benefits of ACECL membership. Just contact me at dmobley@acecl.org or Janet Tomeny at jtomeny@acecl.org, or call us at 225-927-7704.
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Do you know of a Louisiana business that could benefit from an affiliate membership in ACEC/L? Contact
Janet Tomeny at 225-927-7704.
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Upcoming Events
- ACEC Annual Legislative Convention, April 23-26, 2017 - Washington, D.C.
- Deep South Convention, July 26-30, 2017 - Sandestin, FL
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