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Follow TURFCongressman DeFazio announces plans to pay for roads and bridges
Congressman DeFazio announces plans to pay for roads and bridges
By Reed Black
Land Line Now Magazine
June 16, 2014
Last week, U.S. Rep Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., announced his plan for paying for roads and bridges.
It calls for eliminating the gas tax at the pump and taxing oil at the refinery level instead. The oil tax would be indexed to increase with inflation, and the oil companies could pass along the cost of the tax to consumers.
DeFazio says the 24-cent federal tax on diesel would remain, but would be indexed so that truckers would not pay a disproportionate share.
DeFazio told “Land Line Now” on Sirius XM that the alternative to his plan is a nation of toll roads.
“What I’m also trying to do is forestall the tolling of the entire interstate in the United States of America, which is an alternative being pushed by some on the Republican side and by the Obama Administration,” DeFazio explained.
“So we’ve got to stop that in its tracks, which means we need a credible funding source or we’re going to end up seeing the 140,000 bridges that need repair and replacement – every one will have a toll. All the interstates will have a toll. That would be, in my mind, a disaster for this country.” Other plans for funding roads and bridges call for closing corporate tax loopholes.