“The funding issues of WYDOT are real,” Reiner said on Friday. “What is unexplored is an area we would call a miles-based user fee – some sort of fee related to usage. What we know is that fuel taxes as a long-term funding solution for roads is on the decline.”

However, little is known about what sort of viability those various solutions would have, nor their impact on revenues or consumers. Through the creation of a task force, Pappas said a specialized group of experts could commit the necessary amount of time and attention to not only vet those proposals, but better inform the committee and other members of the Legislature on what ideas might work for Wyoming and what could not.

“In our citizen legislature, we don’t put enough time in our session and in our committees to get things done and get things done properly,” Pappas said. “Frankly, this is a big ticket item.

“We have a lot of maintenance that needs to get done, and we don’t have the money to do it,” he added. “Getting a task force together to get this done is important.”