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Follow TURFBush calls for tolling existing FREEways, privatizing infrastructure
Bush Calls for New Highway Tolls, More Private Funding of Roads
By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY
Wall Street Journal
July 30, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration unveiled a plan to impose new tolls on freeways and encourage more private investment to finance road and mass-transit projects, a move aimed at stirring debate as lawmakers prepare for a major overhaul of transportation policy.
The White House says more tolls and public-private partnerships can solve perhaps the biggest problem confronting the nation's aging infrastructure: There are limited funds available to upgrade transportation networks and too many federal funds are doled out inefficiently through earmarks and pet projects that do little to improve mobility or reduce congestion.
The search for alternative funding sources is ramping up because Americans are driving less and shifting to more fuel-efficient vehicles. That means they will be paying less in gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes, which traditionally have been the biggest source of federal funding for highway and mass-transit construction.
Many states are moving to increase existing tolls. Pennsylvania, for example, is hoping to win federal permission for new tolls on a standing interstate. Meanwhile, several states are turning to business consortiums to finance, build and operate new highways, bridges and tunnels, although a political backlash has slowed the push in recent years.
The administration's proposal comes as Congress gears up to start work later this year on a six-year transportation spending bill that could cost well more than $400 billion. The last multiyear bill, which expires in September 2009, carried a $286 billion tab.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan commission concluded the nation is spending only about 40% of what is needed to reduce congestion, improve safety and spur economic growth. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters served on the commission but dissented from the majority view that gas taxes should more than double in coming years to support a big increase in transportation spending.
Ms. Peters says gas-tax rates should hold steady -- at 18.4 cents a gallon for regular gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon for diesel, where they have stood for more than a decade -- and private money and toll revenue can address any needed increases in funding. She declined Tuesday to say how much more the U.S. needs to increase its overall spending on transportation infrastructure. Instead, she suggested ways to make transportation spending less wasteful.
"Our federal approach to transportation is broken," she said. "And no amount of tweaking, adjusting or adding new layers on top will make things better."
Many Democrats objected to the administration's plan, saying it could have gone further in identifying ways to raise investment and spur projects that could unclog major choke points. Perhaps the most common complaint centered on the shift in reliance from gas taxes to private-sector dollars.
"It's basically an opportunity for people who have wanted to systematically reduce the federal participation in infrastructure," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.), who is spearheading a transportation debate in the House. "It's going to fall with a thud."
The two major presidential candidates haven't released detailed plans on transportation funding, even as the issue is sure to be one of next year's biggest legislative battles. Republican Sen. John McCain has stressed the need to eliminate earmarks and pet projects. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama supports the creation of a $60 billion national infrastructure bank that would fund projects of regional and national significance. The two have also sparred over Mr. McCain's proposal to give consumers a gas-tax holiday this summer.