From U.S. PIRG<\/p>\n
Highway advocates often claim that roads \u201cpay for themselves,\u201d with gasoline taxes and other charges to motorists covering \u2013 or nearly covering \u2013 the full cost of highway construction and maintenance. They are wrong.<\/p>\n
Highways do not \u2013 and, except for brief periods in our nation\u2019s history, never have \u2013 paid for themselves through the taxes that highway advocates label \u201cuser fees.\u201d Yet highway advocates continue to suggest they do in an attempt to secure preferential access to scarce public resources and to shape how those resources are spent.<\/p>\n
To have a meaningful national debate over transportation policy \u2013 particularly at a time of tight public budgets \u2013 it is important to get past the myths and address the real, difficult choices America must make for the 21st century. Toward that end, this report shows:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Gasoline taxes aren\u2019t \u201cuser fees\u201d in any meaningful sense of the term \u2013 The amount of money a particular driver pays in gasoline taxes bears little relationship to his or her use of roads funded by gas taxes. <\/p>\n
\u00b7 State gas taxes are often not \u201cextra\u201d fees \u2013 Most states exempt gasoline from the state sales tax, diverting much of the money that would have gone into a state\u2019s general fund to roads.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Federal gas taxes have typically not been devoted exclusively to highways \u2013 Since its 1934 inception, Congress only temporarily dedicated gas tax revenues fully to highways during the brief 17-year period beginning in 1956. This was at the start of construction for the Interstate highway network, a project completed in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Highways don\u2019t pay for themselves — Since 1947, the amount of money spent on highways, roads and streets has exceeded the amount raised through gasoline taxes and other so-called \u201cuser fees\u201d by $600 billion (2005 dollars), representing a massive transfer of general government funds to highways.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Highways \u201cpay for themselves\u201d less today than ever. Currently, highway \u201cuser fees\u201d pay only about half the cost of building and maintaining the nation\u2019s network of highways, roads and streets.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 These figures fail to include the many costs imposed by highway construction on non-users of the system, including damage to the environment and public health and encouragement of sprawling forms of development that impose major costs on the environment and government finances.<\/p>\n
To make the right choices for America\u2019s transportation future, the nation should take a smart approach to transportation investments, one that weighs the full costs and benefits of those investments and then allocates the costs of those investments fairly across society.<\/p>\n