from Our Failing Infrastructure by adickert
The President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform released its final report this week. Included in the list of recommendations is a 15 cent increase in the federal gas tax to begin in 2013. ASCE applauds this proposal as a fiscally responsible way to begin solving the nation’s infrastructure crisis.
ASCE has long been sounding the alarm about the failing state of the nation’s infrastructure and the need to invest as much as $2.2 trillion over the next five years. But over the past several years, the Highway Trust Fund has relied on transfers from the general fund, at a cost of $35 billion, just so that surface transportation projects authorized under SAFETEA-LU may continue to move forward.
The reliance on the general fund has been detrimental to the nation’s fiscal health and has created an unstable environment for state surface transportation programs. Inclusion of a 15 cent gas tax increase would help Congress to move ahead on passing a long-stalled multi-year surface transportation bill, and bring solvency back to the Highway Trust Fund.
Increased funding for infrastructure is an investment in our future. If we succeed now, we can rebuild old and unsafe infrastructure, put people back to work and lay a foundation for future growth.
If you want to help the economy and make infrastructure safer, contact your legislators and urge them to vote on the gas tax provision.
https://blogs.asce.org/govrel/?p=349oldId.20101201182714598
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