Posted on 07/08/2014 5:59:19 AM PDT by cotton1706
A trio of Democratic senators called for quick action this month on agreeing to keep funds flowing to transportation projects through the end of the year as bipartisan, bicameral negotiations continue on finding a way to pay for the patch.
“We have to. It is a necessity for the economy of this country, for our infrastructure and for everything else, to come to an agreement before the trust fund runs out,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the No. 3 Senate Democrat, said on a conference call.
“Our purpose today is to urge both sides to come together, to put down any partisan objection, to come to a compromise and get this done in the short term and then we can try to work on a longer term plan later,” the New York Democrat said. “To let the [highway] trust fund run out at time when we need jobs, we need the economy going, would be a disgrace.”
Congress has to come up with about $10 billion to plug the shortfall needed to fund transportation projects through the end of the year, given that the highway trust fund — the collection of gas tax receipts doled out to states to pay for surface transportation projects — is expected to run out of money this month.
And funding for transportation programs would shrink after Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. A short-term fix would give Congress a chance to work out a multi-year transportation authorization with a new funding mechanism or a bill that doesn’t provide as much aid.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.rollcall.com ...
Let the individual states finish any projects within their borders. I don't need to be paying for a road in Montana, or a bridge in Utah, etc.
The trust fund is a scam. A slush fund for any green, mass transit or union jobs boondoggle that Congress wants to fund. Everyone knows it.
It doesn't work that way. Doing nothing would only stop the spending, not the federal gas tax which was raised in 1993.
Some (in Senate) have been calling for increasing the gas tax as cars are using less gas per environmental standards.
A bump at the pump? Senators propose a 12-cent hike in federal gas tax.(Wash Post June 18, 2014)
They practically banned smoking, and then whined about the loss of tobacco taxes. They mandated higher and higher mileage cars, and are now whine about the loss of fuel taxes. Those unintended consequences are a bitch!
No, the gas tax will actually expire. See this story from 2011. The gas tax (as far as I know) has not been made permanent. It needs to be extended or “patched” every year or two.
http://blog.motorists.org/federal-gas-tax-expires-september-30/
Anytime democrats call for “quick action” it’s a big red flag.
210 million licensed drivers in the U.S. (Probably another 20-40 million unlicensed)
Average miles driven per year = 13,476
Average auto fuel consumption: 25mpg
Federal Fuel tax approx $.20 a gallon
That mean the Feds take in $22-thousand-million-dollars a year. Since the States average about $.30 a gallon tax, they take in an additional $34-thousand-million a year. That money is SUPPOSED to spent on ROADS.
Tell Congress to pound sand and stop stealing the Fed gas tax and start spending it on the ROADS instead. Not one penny to "light rail" "mass transit" or "green energy" which are simply buzz words for payoffs to cronies.
“the collection of gas tax receipts doled out to states...”
This is why the whole scheme is immoral. We send our taxes to Washington, where some is skimmed off the top...and a fraction of it comes back to us, with strings attached (speed limit, seat belts, public transportation).
Its gotten out of hand - this fund doesn’t just pay for highways anymore. Many major municipal street projects are funded with federal money.
My favorite bad example is the renovation of a train station into a museum - not exactly a highway. I worked on the project, and the extra layers of reviews, reports, etc. dealing with the federal money was also extraordinarily wasteful.
Thanks, I definitely didn't know that.
That makes it a bit harder for Bohner to go along with another highway spending bill, he would have to team with Dems to extend that gas tax, and gas prices are not exactly low.
I know those GOP whores in the Senate who voted for the internet tax bill will have no trouble extending this tax,
If it expired and gas prices went down by that 18 cents that would nullify the Dems doomsday cries on the highway fund.
its the opposite of the situation on the Bush tax cuts Dec 31 2012.
They want the gravy train to keep flowing. Money from us that flows to the unions through these “infrastructure” projects that in turn flows to the democrats through union dues.
Let the gas tax expire, and the states can increase their own gas taxes appropriately if they need to to fix problems in their states. Then they can lower them again when the projects are done or throw out the politicians if they don’t.
With money coming from the far away federal government, nobody is ever held accountable for shoddy or excessively lengthy projects, which is of course exactly how they like it.
As long as they can always get more money they’ll never stop diverting it into the pig trough where light rail, bike paths, and nature walks are “highway” projects.
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