Editor:
Now that we had the restructuring of Congress, there have been many that are talking about cutting spending programs. I agree, with unemployment up over 9.7 percent and the price of many things are moving out of reach for most people, Congress is thinking about taking another look at how they fund the Highway Trust Fund. They have to understand the longer they wait the more it is going to cost to fix a system that has been in failure mode for quite a few years now.
So here is the long and the short of it. Lawmakers sent $7 billion of the Highway Trust Fund, but long-term solutions are still being sought. The first nine months of 2010 were chock-full of compelling transportation talks on Capitol Hill, starting with the White House stimulus package, and ending in a battle of wills in the House and Senate. Now the remaining quarter of 2010 has been equally action packed as lawmakers resume debate about how to fund transportation in both the short term and long term.
The short-term debate has centered on the Highway Trust Fund, the stalwart highway infrastructure funding since the creation of interstate highways back in the '50s. For the second time in two years, lawmakers were forced to take emergency action to save the fund from bankruptcy. House and Senate lawmakers and President Obama wasted little time in restoring $7 billion to the Highway Trust Fund in August from the U.S. Treasury. In 2008, Congress and then-President Bush were forced to enact a similar transaction for $8 billion. Both transactions involved restoring money that was previously diverted from the transportation fund.
With the Highway Trust Fund shored up, at least for a few months, the debate raged on over long-term funding. U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., kicked off that discussion when he unveiled a $450 billion surface transportation authorization bill early last summer. The bill was in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which Oberstar chairs. The authorization bill, commonly referred to as the "Highway Bill," still has a long way to go before it can become law. The Senate has made sure of that.
Senate committees, with support from the White House and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, pushed out a separate bill to delay passage of a highway bill for 18 months. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led the charge in an effort to buy time for Congress to find a supplement to fuel taxes. The federal fuel tax has remained unchanged since 1993. The Senate action was aimed at extending the current highway program known as SAFETEA-LU, for 18 months.
House lawmakers fired back by demanding action on a long-term highway bill as soon as possible. However, funding a five- or six-year highway bill remains the biggest unanswered question of the year in transportation on Capitol Hill. Many lawmakers are against raising fuel taxes in time of economic recession, and some have brought forward alternatives.
Some lawmakers are making a push to implement a new tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT). While the concept of VMTs has intrigued some, other highway user-groups believe the concept is not ready for implementation just yet. These groups also point out the issue of personal privacy still needs to be worked out. A VMT system would use GPS technology to track miles traveled for each vehicle.
Vehicle owners would then be billed accordingly to the miles they have traveled.
Many lawmakers say tax increases, at least in some form, are inevitable to fund the next generation of transportation programs. Congress may pin hopes on some form of tolling, but indications are that tolling will be reserved for new lane capacity only. Another interesting concept floated by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., would be to tax the oil market speculators for each transaction. He says taxing speculators would keep oil prices down while generating billions for transportation. Some Senate Republicans suggested taking unspent money from the White House stimulus package and applying it to transportation, but several bills relating to that idea fell short in committee.
Lawmakers, urged on by the recommendations of two federal commissions, may explore increases to Heavy Vehicle Use Tax, licensing and other fees that affect the bottom line of truckers. Leaders and members from different industry associations continue to push Congress to plug the hole in the bucket by fixing the way tax dollars are spent. Highway funds should be spent on the nation's highways and not on walking trails or some other worthless projects, which has no connection to highway funding. That is the only way that the nation's trucking industry will entertain the possibility of any proposed tax increase. If they fix what needs to be fixed first, the rest will fall in line behind them.
Mike McRae
Elkins
