But the Bush Administration is going to do as much damage as they can in the meantime. From the New York Times:
Gasoline tax revenue is falling so fast that the federal government may not be able to meet its commitments to states for road projects already under way, the secretary of transportation said Monday. The secretary, Mary E. Peters [at right], said the short-term solution would be for the Highway Trust Fund’s highway account to borrow money from the fund’s mass transit account…
It’s a good thing that highway costs are borne by its users, unlike those lousy transit systems, whom hardworking people on a fixed income have to subsidize.
(sigh) The good old “driving is down, so where can we get money for more roads?” argument. At least when Discovery thought of that they only came up with selling our highways to the highest bidder. Leave it to the current administration to out-road even them.
When was the last time they raised the federal gas tax?
uh oh…. is u-link in trouble?
Dear Slog,
Please pick up this piece.
Love,
AJ
this is pretty old news actually, i think i saw it on the slog a month or two ago, and i also had a letter about it in the P-I awhile back as well.
just wait til our buddy mccain goes and kills amtrak!
i should say they’ve been *trying* to do this for a bit
I imagine its possible that U-Link could be affected by this. The funds given to a project in full are appropriated through a number of years after the initial agreement between the agency and the FTA. Under this scenario, the FTA program would not have full funding starting in 2010.
I think that this would just jeopardize new FFGAs – I’d imagine that anything that’s already under way would be fully funded.
Here’s something interesting:
DOT Renews Opposition to Gas Tax
The Department of Transportation again urged a transition away from the gas tax toward a broader transportation funding base, in a comprehensive proposal released July 29.
The proposal, Refocus. Reform. Renew. A New Transportation Approach for America, urged Congress in the 2009 transportation policy rewrite to begin the gradual shift away from a gas tax “that is increasingly ineffective, unpopular, and unsustainable.” Direct user fees, such as tolls and congestion pricing, in addition to public-private partnerships, were recommended as funding sources that could eventually transplant the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon that currently provides over 90 percent of federal surface transportation funding.
The report is online at http://www.fightgridlocknow.gov/reform/reformproposal08.pdf.
One of the primary duties of government is to FIX the existing roads. Something we seem not to keep up with here.
It is going to be so sad to see so many so bereft when Bush is gone and yet, and yet, as if by magic, the same old crapola keeps unfolding. Whomever shall we blame then? The Republicans? The Fundamentalists. The Bush “legacy”? The McCainiacs? The Obamatrons?
Folks are going to need a whole new villain.
Yes they should maintain roads, but not at the cost of transit which is exploding in ridership. And I can promise you if any administration did this, this blog would be just as much against it.
Actually, the only primary duty of government is to protect its citizens. You can take that to mean they should protect us from looming economic collapse if we didn’t have our roads (or transit!!!! roads aren’t the only transportation dangit!)…but that would be a subsidiary responsibility, not a primary. Maybe I’m over analyzing your choice of words.
Yes, I think I remember that in the Constitution. Something about the right to smooth and comfortable travel in fossil fuel based personal vehicle. There may also be a section about the right to gun racks.
Actually, defense is only priority number 4 for our government.
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
yes, but why was this idea of governments formed in the first place? it goes back further than our constitution…