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Legislative Watch 
LEGISLATIVE
12/9/04-Rep. Billy Montgomery plans to introduce legislation in the next session calling for a statewide 1-cent-a-gallon fuel tax increase.
The funds generated would be dedicated to finishing the long-awaited extensions of Interstate 49, which runs from Shreveport to Lafayette.
Montgomery, D-Haughton, said fuel prices change so frequently that drivers would hardly notice a penny addition, which would generate $27 million per year. The funds would match federal dollars to extend I-49 from Shreveport at I-20 to the Arkansas border. A southern extension from Lafayette at I-10 on a southerly route to the west bank of the New Orleans area would be included.
The interstate is expected eventually to run through Arkansas to Kansas City, MO, roughly parallel with U.S. 71.
The I-49 extension has been hailed by state leaders as one of Louisiana’s most important transportation needs, one that would encourage economic development, according to The Times-Picayune.
“It’s too important for me not to try to do something,” Montgomery said.
Louisiana already takes 20 cents on the gallon for diesel and gasoline sold at the pump. Sixteen cents of that money goes to support the state Department of Transportation and Development, which has an annual operating budget of about $1.6 billion. Nearly 60 percent of that budget is used each year for new roads or widening existing ones. About 30 percent goes for repair.
Estimates vary from $1.5 billion to $2.4 billion for the cost of the I-49 additions.
