Our Failing Infrastructure

This week’s topic on the National Journal’s Tranportation Expert’s Blog wonders about the ability to increase the federal gas tax when anti-tax sentiment can be so passionate.

ASCE’s Executive Director, Pat Natale says:

The “Tea Party” protest that descended on the National Mall this month reminds us that any mention of a tax increase galvanizes a loud and passionate opposition. The anti-tax sentiment is a strong force, but advocates for a safe and efficient transportation system are capable of meeting the challenge as long as we are as willing as the other side to stand up for our principles.

The message may not fit on a bumper sticker as easily as an anti-tax sound bite, but we should still endeavor to inform the public about the benefits of increasing the gas tax. ASCE estimates that almost $740 billion is needed over the next 5 years to bring the road and transit systems up to a “good” level – and that doesn’t take into account the fact that by 2010 the gas tax will have lost half of its purchasing power since it was last raised in 1993. The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission and the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission agree that we must raise the gas tax and the federal government needs to take an increased role in surface transportation…

To read the rest of his response and to learn what other contributors on the blog think, go to National Journal.

***** ALSO: Don’t forget!!!**** SAFETEA-LU expires tomorrow (September 30, 2009) take this chance to contact your Senators and ask them to support a three month extension of the bill so final details of a full six year bill can be worked out. Send an instant email from ASCE’s Click and Connect with Congress Advocacy Website.

Thanks to the quick action of ASCE Key Contacts who called their legislators urging support, the U.S. House of Representatives voted last night to approve a three month extension of the federal highway and transit program. The current law authorizing those programs, SAFETEA-LU, expires September 30. The final vote on the extension was passed with what seems like a by a vote of 335 to 85. The bill passed with a majority of Republican members voting in favor, despite the party’s opposition to the bill.

As Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the bill’s sponsor, made clear in his floor speech, transportation has traditionally been a bipartisan issue because everyone realized how integral a safe and efficient system is to the health and economic stability of our country. Just like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year, the surface transportation bill will be a tool for maintaining our competiveness and creating economic growth and jobs.

What seems to make the Republican leadership oppose efforts Oberstar’s proposals for the nation’s transportation system is the question of a gas tax increase. It’s no secret and it’s not surprising that Mr. Oberstar is in favor of a gas tax increase (as is ASCE and a number of Republicans including T&I Committee Ranking Member John Mica). The gas tax is a user fee: drivers pay it as the cost to use the roads, and that money goes directly to maintaining and building new roads. Unfortunately, the cost of building and maintaining roads and transit systems has gone up and the gas tax hasn’t increased since 1993 to meet those rising costs.

Raising taxes will always cause a stir, but when it comes to transportation - the means for getting to work, getting the goods and services we demand, and seeing our loved ones - let’s all pitch in to inform the public (and Members of Congress) how important new revenues are.

If you want all the details leading up to passage of the extension, the Congressional Record has the full transcript here.

As designers, builders, and maintainers of the nation’s infrastructure, civil engineers have long urged the immediate reauthorization of the federal surface transportation program to ensure vital investments that protect health and safety and keep the economy moving are made. As the current law, SAFETEA-LU, is about to expire on September 30, ASCE is joined by many of the nation’s leading business groups to push for action now.

Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Trucking Association, and the American Automobile Association sent a joint letter to Congress and the Obama administration asking for prompt action on surface transportation legislation. In the letter the group states,

Our groups represent the users of the system – individuals and businesses that move on our nation’s transportation network. We are the payers of that system. And as payers we know the value that strategic capital investments provide to our national highway, bridge, and public transportation network. These public assets pay dividends to American families, businesses, and the U.S. economy and deliver a long-term value that far exceeds their initial cost

 

Similar to ASCE, these user groups not only want prompt action on transportation legislation, they want the new revenues needed to back it up. All groups are open to any type of financing mechanism, but all agree that increasing the federal motor fuels tax is the easiest and most effective way to ensure that the nation’s transportation system gets the funding it needs.

If transportation groups, a.k.a. the people who will be paying the higher fuel taxes, are willing to put their money where their mouths are, why won’t Congress? That across the board support, combined with record high traffic congestion and unemployment, makes it seem like putting people to work to ease the back-up would be a no brainer.

The infrastructure investments made in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were a good start at repairing failing infrastructure and putting people to work, but they won’t last forever. Let’s take this opportunity to keep the nation’s economy and safety on track.

Click here to send your Congressional representatives a message supporting action on transportation legislation.

Keep up to date on all developments on surface transportation on ASCE’s Transportation Action Page. 

That’s the question this week on the National Journal’s Transportation Experts Blog - ASCE’s answer is, yes, definitely!

Freight today rarely travels by truck alone, and the transfer from one mode to the next often adds to costly delays and pollution from idling vehicles. The needs of our global economy demand that we start enhancing and improving connectivity and service to the major intermodal terminals including seaports, airports, rail terminals, ports of entry and inland intermodal terminals. To do this, programs at every level of government need to use a wide range of multimodal options and new technologies when developing their transportation plans. Of course, the key question in all of this is: How do we pay for it?

To read the full post, click here.