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Frozen Gas Tax Leads to Toll Roads
"This crisis will be thrown in their lap right as they are rewriting the program," said Jeff Shoaf, senior executive director of Associated General Contractors of America.
Because investment in new projects is spread over a number of years, every dollar of shortfall translates into a $4 drop in highway spending, he said.
  Gas prices in the northwest section of the District of Columbia at this Exxon Gas Station are seen at more than $3.25 per gallon, Saturday, May 19, 2007, in Washington. A cash crunch is fast approaching for the government trust fund that pays to build and repair highways and bridges. The federal tax on a gallon of gas has not risen in 14 years and Congress is reluctant to increase it. People are demanding more fuel-efficient vehicles _ less gasoline used, fewer dollars for the fund. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) (Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP) 
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Thus in 2010, the government will have only $20 billion to invest on highways, half the current spending level and less than one-third of the $70 billion that Shoaf said is needed for real road improvements.
"A drastic cut in federal highway and transit funding will result unless Congress steps in," John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said in a report.
Horsley's group said the fuel tax would have to be increased by 10 cents per gallon through 2015 to restore the purchasing power of the program.
The Senate Finance Committee is looking into temporary ways to refinance the trust fund, including redirecting some transportation-related taxes that now go into the government's general account and clamping down on gas tax fraud. A Transportation Department commission also plans to issue recommendations by the end of this year.
By the middle of the next decade, the highway trust fund will be providing $100 billion to $150 billion below real needs for building highways and bridges, predicted Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on highways and transit.
"In the long run we've either got to admit we are going to underinvest and accept more gridlock and congestion" or find new revenue sources, said DeFazio, D-Ore.
What is clear to him is that raising taxes of any kind for the highway trust fund is possible only if people are convinced that more spending will mean less congestion, safer roads and a cleaner environment.
The public will not support new taxes "just to throw money in the maw of the federal government," DeFazio said.
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On the Net:
Federal Highway Administration: http:/
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials: http:/
American Road and Transportation Builders Association: http:/
Associated General Contractors of America: http:/
