The interstates you drive on are paid for, largely, by the taxes you pay on gasoline and diesel fuel. Right now you pay 18.4 cents a gallon in federal tax. So, when we start driving less -- and we are driving less -- the highway trust fund starts drying up. By next year, the
LA Times says, the highway trust fund could be more than $3 billion in the red. No doubt you should be checking with your state highway department to find out what this means in your state. The story says:
The fund, set to finance about $40 billion in transportation projects next year, is increasingly strained. And the problem has taken on greater urgency as lawmakers face a backlog of projects to maintain the nation's aging interstate highway system and ease traffic congestion.
"The situation has only been exacerbated by rising fuel prices, which are causing motorists to drive less and resulting in less revenue for transportation improvements," said David Bauer, senior vice president for government relations at the
American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
The piece adds:
In the short run, lawmakers are scrambling to figure out how to close the gap. Federal highway spending nationwide could be cut by a third beginning Oct. 1, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
"The condition of the highway trust fund has been deteriorating for years, but skyrocketing gas prices have made an already dire situation worse," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., head of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee. "We are now less than a year away from a bankrupt trust fund, which would leave critical construction projects in peril."
In the long run, lawmakers must figure out whether the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax, which helped bring in money when fuel-hungry SUVs were hot, is still a viable way to fund transportation projects amid heightened concern about gasoline prices, U.S. dependence on foreign oil and global warming.
Next year the state or the feds will move in...
