Highway Trust Fund
Heritage Action on Highway Trust Fund: There is No Crisis
Is Heritage Action in a state of denial? Keith Laing, The Hill's transportation reporter, reviews a recent blog from the powerful conservative group claiming that spending will decrease only 7% at most, thus no reason to increase taxes or spending.
Federal Transportation Funds to Decrease August 1
U.S. Treasury Secretary Anthony Foxx warned State DOT officials in a July 1 letter that due to declining funds in the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund, he will implement a new reimbursement policy that may cause some states to halt projects.
A PATH to Nowhere?
After it's first hearing, the PATH Act is not looking very promising to keep federal transportation reimbursements flowing to state DOTs late next month when the Highway Trust Fund is expected to approach insolvency. The one user fee was dropped.
Your IRA Account May 'Patch' the Highway Trust Fund
A $9 billion patch bill was drafted by Sen. Finance Comm. Chair Ron Wyden to continue transportation spending to Dec. 31. Most of the funds come from a change in how Individual Retirement Accounts are administered and a heavy truck use tax increase.
Post Office Spared from House Republican's Highway Plan
The House Republican plan to gut Saturday postal delivery to pay for six months of highway spending was dropped on June 18. It appears it was a casualty of Majority Leader Eric Cantor's primary loss in his Virginia congressional district.
Bipartisan Plan to Increase Fuel Taxes Surfaces
A surprising and unexpected bipartisan plan to increase gas and diesel taxes by 12 cents each emerged June 18 from Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Taxes would increase six cents a gallon annually for two years.
Highway Trust Fund Ticker Updates Path Toward Insolvency
For those who haven't been following the Trust Fund's ticker, it's a bit like the deficit clock except that it runs in the opposite direction, going towards zero or insolvency. The ticker measures the balance in both the highway and transit accounts.
Who Should Pay for Highways: Motorists or Oil Companies?
A new transportation funding option proposed by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) would repeal the 18.4-cent gas tax, unchanged since 1993, with a "small" tax levied against oil companies on each barrel of oil used to make gasoline.
States Address Impending Cut-off of Federal Transportation Funds
With federal highway funds likely to be cut off in August unless Congress can reach an agreement on a stopgap solution, some states, e.g., MO, VT, GA, AR have taken matters into their own hands to ensure that vital construction projects continue.
Op-Ed: User Fees, Not General Funds, Should Fund Transportation
The Washington Post editorializes against the use of general funds to fill the Highway Trust Fund shortfall ($18 billion annually), whether they be dedicated funds or offsets, and evaluates proposals from President Barack Obama and House Republicans.
Op-Ed: Time to End Reliance on Highway User Fees
It's time to fund federal transportation like most other nations do—rely less on highway user fees that dedicate funds to highways and transition to funding roads from the general fund, perhaps in the same amount that they contribute to GDP.
Buy a Stamp—Patch a Highway?
This could have been our Friday Funny—but it's for real. House Republicans have suggested that reforming the United States Postal Service, such as ending Saturday delivery and other cost cutting could be used to shore-up the Highway Trust Fund
Offsetting: A Third Strategy to Fund Federal Transportation Spending
"What program would you cut to continue the same level of transportation spending without raising the gas tax, e.g. cancer treatment programs, Head Start?," asks Streetsblog USA's Tanya Snyder after reading Sen. Bob Corker's (R-Tenn.) recommendation.
What's Wrong with the Senate's MAP-21 Reauthorization Bill?
Plenty, according to Tanya Snyder, Streetsblog USA editor, who finds Obama's Grow America plan far superior. Outside of not including a gas tax to fill the Trust Fund gap, she finds the proposal "underfunded and highway centric." She is not alone.
Senate Committee Releases Six-Year Transportation Reauthorization Bill
The bill to reauthorize the current surface transportation law, "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century", a.k.a. MAP-21, was released on Monday and will be "marked up" on Thursday. Spending is kept at current levels of $50 billion a year.
Waterways Infrastructure Bill: Prelude to Highway Bill Agreement?
Last Thursday, House and Senate leaders announced agreement on an $8.2 billion waterways infrastructure bill, and if they have their way, it won't be their last major agreement. On Monday, a successor highway bill (to MAP-21) will be released.
A Transportation Redline that Obama is Required to Keep
If Congress can't agree how to fund the Highway Trust Fund shortfall, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx warned state DOTs that he will be unable to reimburse them for funds already spent. The redline is the $4 billion mark projected to come July.
Secretary Foxx Talks Funding (and Possibly Tolling)
A recent article by Yonah Freemark details the policy agenda of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, the former mayor of Charlotte and successor of well-regarded Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood.
Advocates and Opponents Struggle Over Toll Roads
While tolling will not fill the Highway Trust Fund gap, it can finance improvements for specific interstate highways that would otherwise be funded by a sustainable trust fund, not one approaching insolvency. Why not allow states the option to toll?
Does Exhausting the Highway Trust Fund Have a Silver Lining?
Avid highway opponents are less concerned about filling the Trust Fund gap, notwithstanding the effect on transit, and more on stopping road expansion. Widening of Colorado's I-25 and U.S. 26 in Oregon may halt without an agreement for new funds.
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