PIERRE — The Legislature will be presented a package of proposed tax increases for highway funding in the 2010 session, but state Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist said Thursday he doesn’t foresee lawmakers coming up with any more money for road maintenance and projects.

Bergquist made his remarks during the regular monthly meeting of the state Transportation Commission.

Asked by commissioner Bob Benson of Winner about the chances for passage of the legislative study committee’s package of recommendations, Bergquist’s answer gave no reason for optimism.

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“In reality, probably slim and none,” he said.

In addition to the election-year politics and the economy which Benson mentioned, Bergquist said state government’s much broader financial problems would demand legislators’ attention.

“The reality is I don’t anticipate anything this year. I would like to be proven wrong,” Bergquist said.

Lawmakers recently completed their second study in as many years regarding South Dakota’s highway funding situation. House and Senate members couldn’t reach agreement in the 2009 session, as each chamber approved a different plan while Gov. Mike Rounds stayed on the side.

Bergquist said Thursday that Congress remains unclear on the future of federal transportation funding. The current program has expired and states are receiving about 30 percent less than their normal allotments under a temporary extension that runs out next month.

Bergquist said members of Congress are sending many different signals. On one hand, state transportation officials are being queried about how another round of federal stimulus funding might be more effectively used. On another hand, the transportation legislation offered by Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minnesota, would increase funding by approximately $100 billion but the additional money would be for special projects.

South Dakota’s problem is that inflation has gradually eroded the buying power of the state’s 22-cent tax per gallon on gasoline and diesel fuels. The Legislature last increased the tax in 1999.

After a presentation Thursday, the state commission members saw no need to change their five-year plan for projects.

Instead, they remain in a preservation mode, where resurfacing is a stopgap replacement for reconstruction on stretches of lesser-traveled two-lane highways that need major work. Among those in that category are SD. 46 west of Irene, S.D. 10 east of Britton, S.D. 28 east and west of Hitchcock, and S.D. 15 and S.D. 20 south of Milbank.

“We don’t have enough money right now to preserve what we have,” said Joel Jundt. He is DOT’s planning and engineering director.

Commissioners said they sensed a change in public attitudes the past few years during the regional meetings held each summer updating the five-year plan. They said people seem to understand the situation. While local leaders still made the cases for their local projects, the pitches also often acknowledged the tight circumstances.

“The tone is different,” commissioner Rodney Fouberg of Aberdeen said. He added that it doesn’t mean people are throwing in the towel, however. “What they don’t want,” he said, “is for someone else to get it if they don’t.”