The Federal gasoline taxes you pay will likely at least double from the current 18 cents a gallon.
With Minnesota Democrat James Oberstar’s sweeping bill to reform Transportation policy and fix the bankrupt Highway Trust Fund apparently blocked by the Obama Administration, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing to renew the existing bill for six more years.
The current authorization, contained in the 2005 act known popularly as SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users) is due to expire September 30th.
Both proposals are against the Obama Administration’s plan to ignore reforms for 18 months with a temporary injection of billions of dollars into the bankrupt Highway Trust Fund. And all pass the buck on the critical issue of how to pay for what will be a budget busting program of up to half a trillion dollars, if you believe the projections in Oberstar’s “Surface Transportation Authorization Act Of 2009″ introduced last month.
As always, the question of policy revolves around who pays and who benefits. You will undoubtedly pay. Federal gasoline taxes will likely double, at least, from the current 18 cents a gallon because people are driving less and the vehicles they are driving are increasingly more fuel efficient.
The Oberstar bill contains important reform provisions to safeguard how the money is used by states. Current Federal transportation programs have no performance goals and there is no requirement for states, cities, and public transit agencies to develop transportation plans with specific objectives. Worse, the tax money can be diverted for other uses.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today led more than 100 business leaders, association executives, and local members from 28 states to Capitol Hill for a “Transportation is Your Business” fly-in. They delivered a message to Congress that investment in our highways, bridges, and public transportation systems must not be delayed.”
No Gas Taxes
“The Congress and Administration need to make America’s crumbling transportation infrastructure a priority,” said Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
While calling for the reauthorization of a SAFETEA-LU, which clearly failed to protect the U.S. infrastructure and which does not provide adequate funding going forward, the Chamber is calling on Congress to “explore all funding options, including raising user fees, encouraging private investment, and creating an infrastructure bank.”
Donohue says that reauthorization bill introduced by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is a good start but lacks details on funding and includes provisions that the Chamber opposes, such as a Buy American provision on infrastructure projects. Donohue also criticized the bill for not providing enough support for another funding mechanism endorsed by the Chamber — public-private partnerships.
The Chamber also supports safeguarding money collected from gas taxes and other fees for transportation-specific projects as well as cutting red tape associated with those projects.
Noting that the federal fuel tax has not been raised in more than 15 years, Donohue said that the business community is prepared to pay higher fuel taxes to pay for strong transportation infrastructure.
Donohue pointed out that it would be easier to raise the gas tax now rather than next year, when the Bush tax cuts expire, but he stopped short of suggesting how much the tax should increase. “Congress should figure out what is reasonable,” he said.
Yesterday Congressman Oberstar joined a prominent Republican Senator in a Capitol news conference to voice support for a new authorization of surface transportation programs and opposition to an extension of current authority which is being advocated by White House officials.
Oberstar and Senator George Voinovich of Ohio were also joined by House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Chairman Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon. All three spoke out against a proposed 18-month extension plan and voiced reference for moving ahead with a six-year authorization bill.
“The Interstate Highway System gave America its greatest spurt of economic growth in the history of this country and we need to sustain that growth by sustaining the investment in surface transportation. And that is what this legislation will do,” said Oberstar.
“An eighteen-month extension will put us into a next presidential election cycle. It will take four years to finish, not a year and a half. I know how Congress works. Inertia becomes the enemy of progress. We are ready to move and we should move now,” he said.
Oberstar says the six-year bill is needed to give states and other recipients time to plan their long-term construction projects. Short-term extensions cause uncertainty and disrupt the planning process, resulting in fewer projects, fewer jobs and less economic growth.
As part of an intensified push on this topic, the Chamber is also conducting a comprehensive advertising, grassroots, and lobbying campaign in support of the reauthorization. The effort includes advertisements on buses and commuter trains, and in magazines and on Web sites; and opinion pieces in local newspapers.
In today’s Capital Hill meetings, executives from Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, DC, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, met with their Senators and Representatives to press for reform of federal transportation policies.