Free Republic

$3.4 billion. That’s how much bad roads and congestion in North Carolina costs its drivers in higher vehicle ownership costs, according to a report commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Fixing those roads—as well as repairing and replacing bridges, building new highways and any other large projects the N.C. DOT has on its schedule—takes money, and lots of it. Steve Abbott, a spokesperson for the N.C. DOT, said that to bring every bridge in the state to “good” condition would cost $3.8 billion, roughly 71 percent of the department’s $5.3 billion budget for the year. “As of now,...

The battle is on, as President Biden pushes a raft of tax hikes to pay for roads, bridges, green energy, and expansive new social programs. His plans are generally popular—but nobody wants to be the one footing the bill. Business groups argue that instead of raising corporate taxes to pay for infrastructure, as Biden wants to do, the government should rely on user fees such as tolls and dedicated taxes, so that people getting the benefit of the new asset bear the cost. Higher corporate taxes can depress investing, send US companies overseas and trigger aggressive tax avoidance. Douglas Holtz-Eakin,...

Amid a deepening stalemate over financing highways and public transit, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on March 12 proposed phasing out his state's gasoline tax, the second highest in the nation, and appointed a commission to recommend alternative ways to pay for the state's needs. Wolf ordered a panel of several dozen lawmakers, transportation industry representatives, transportation planners, government officials and others to deliver recommendations by Aug. 1 of funding alternatives to foot the extra billions of dollars deemed to be necessary. "Our economy, our communities and our future rely on a strong transportation system that supports our safety and growth,"...

Joe Biden's Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has caused outrage among voters by touting a plan to tax Americans for every mile they drive. The Biden administration is considering taxing motorists by the mile to fund their $3 trillion climate-friendly "green" infrastructure plans.

Incoming Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has suggested taxing Americans for the number of miles they drive, a policy he endorsed as a Democratic presidential candidate. The Biden Administration is actively searching for ways to fund its ambitious $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., acknowledged "privacy concerns" related to implementing a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) system but said it should be considered as a potential replacement for the gas tax. During Buttigieg's confirmation hearing in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Thursday, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott asked him if he would support...

Incoming Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has suggested taxing Americans for the number of miles they drive, a policy he endorsed as a Democratic presidential candidate. The Biden Administration is actively searching for ways to fund its ambitious $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., acknowledged "privacy concerns" related to implementing a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) system but said it should be considered as a potential replacement for the gas tax.

When President Joe Biden announced former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as his pick for Transportation Secretary, many scratched their heads. Why would he tap someone who oversaw a small budget, in a small town, in the midwest for such a roll? That puzzle is finally coming together. It turns out that Biden favors Buttigieg's transportation views, specifically the idea that America should move away from the gas tax and instead opt into a tax based on the number of miles a person travels. It would be a new way to provide cash for the Highway Trust Fund, which...

Transportation Secretary nominee Pete Buttigieg suggested raising the federal gas tax in order to fund infrastructure initiatives during his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott asked the former South Bend mayor if he would favor a federal gas tax increase to pay for the Highway Trust Fund. The fund is mostly financed by revenue from federal gas taxes but has become less financially solvent in recent years, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “Well, I think all options need to be on the table,” Buttigieg responded. “As you know,...

Congressional leaders passed a new stimulus package meant to alleviate the financial pain of the coronavirus, but it won’t cure all that ails PennDOT’s pocketbook. PennDOT press secretary Alexis Campbell said Monday afternoon it wasn’t clear if the relief plan will cover the $600 million funding gap plaguing PennDOT. Early media reports indicate that $10 billion of financial relief could be distributed to the 50 states’ highway systems, though it’s unclear how much would come Pennsylvania’s way. State Sen. Pat Browne, a Lehigh County Republican and longtime chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that transportation-specific wording included in the...

With the Texas House Committee on Transportation currently studying the funding of highways in Texas, advocates of toll roads and other funding methods are making their voices heard. As part of the interim charge by Speaker Dennis Bonnen, the committee was tasked with investigating whether “the current mix of use fee-based funding for the state highway system, including registration fees, tolls, and fuel taxes, and [determining] if current funding generated is sufficient to maintain cost demands” — making recommendations for additional methods for funding road infrastructure projects. Ordinarily, the committee would hold meetings and receive testimony from relevant state agencies...

Virginia Democrats agreed to a deal raising gas taxes in the state by a total of 10 cents over the next two years, a move party leadership said would give people "more time with their families." . . . "This is a historic agreement that will give Virginians more time with their families and less [time] stuck in traffic," Virginia House of Delegates speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D.) said.

The Old Dominion is trending in an ominous direction, and it’s a problem for the whole country. On Monday, the Virginia General Assembly ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Advocates of the ERA have argued that Virginia is the 38th and final state needed to add it to the Constitution, though the legal argument for that is dubious. Nevertheless, if the ERA were to become law, it would almost certainly provide the legal basis to enshrine left-wing social dogmas nationwide, among other negative consequences. Other states should take note: No matter how conservative your state has been in the past, you’re...

New analysis of projected provincial gas tax revenues in Ontario has revealed that that source of provincial funding will fall much more dramatically than predicted just five years ago due to increased use of electric vehicles and other factors. And so, concludes Trent University professor emeritus Harry Kitchen in a new report titled Ontario’s Downward Trend for Fuel Revenue: Will Road Pricing Fill the Gap?, the provincial government must look for other sources of revenues to build transportation infrastructure. Kitchen recommends road pricing, such as tolls and HOT lanes, with funds raised earmarked for future transportation improvements, and dynamic parking...

With few exceptions, states are losing the battle with aging bridges in need of repair or replacement. Even states with low percentages of bridges rated poor are finding it difficult to keep up with bridge and road systems that in many cases are 50 years old or older. Utah, which ranks fourth for the lowest percentage of poor bridges, programs a bridge for repair or replacement in the year after it drops to a poor rating, completing the project within four or five years. The Utah Department of Transportation notes, though, that the number of bridges falling from good to...

For more than 25 years, the Federal government has let the Highway Trust Fund, the source of money for Federal infrastructure projects, lose it's purchasing power. That's because the gas tax has been stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel fuel since 1993. While construction costs have increased 125% since 2003, funding has not. Instead of waiting for Washington to get it together, states have taken it upon themselves to fund their own infrastructure projects. Since 2013, 31 states and the District of Columbia have enacted legislation that will increase or may increase overall...

Dive Brief: Illinois State Sen. Martin Sandoval has resigned from his position as chair of the State Senate's Transportation Committee amid a federal fraud and corruption investigation related to state construction work, the Associated Press reported. The Democratic senator is still listed as a member of the committee, however, as of Oct. 15. The move came after the details of a federal search warrant revealed that the FBI last month combed Sandoval's offices and home for information related to architect Cesar Santoy; Santoy's architecture firm, Studio ARQ; red-light camera program company SafeSpeed; lobbyists; construction companies; and employees of the Illinois...

Last November, Democrats hailed California voters' rejection of Proposition 6, a law to scrap the state's 2017 massive gas taxes.  They crowed that Californians were glad to pay five bucks at the pump when the rest of the U.S. average was half that.  Big reason?  Because $3 billion of those takings would save the state's tumbledown highways and go to repair roads and bridges.  The rejection came after a voters showed strong signs of wanting to get rid of the tax until a barrage of television ads ran, warning that any vote to repeal the gas tax would mean the state's decrepit highways and bridges would go wanting for repair funds: A vote to repeal the gas tax would...

Last November, Democrats hailed California voters' rejection of Proposition 6, a law to scrap the state's 2017 massive gas taxes. They crowed that Californians were glad to pay five bucks at the pump when the rest of the U.S. average was half that. Big reason? Because $3 billion of those takings would save the state's tumbledown highways and go to repair roads and bridges.

A cardinal rule of government ought to be: stop wasting money before demanding taxpayers hand over more. When it comes to the Highway Trust Fund and the gas tax, Congress has failed to learn this simple lesson. The federal highway program is set to expire a year from now, but lawmakers looking to fund their pet projects are eager to get started. So the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has already approved a bill that would authorize billions more in projects than the federal gas tax will bring in. The thing is though, they don’t know how to pay...

Nothing says “welcome to the third world” quite like entering Jasper County, South Carolina on Interstate 95. Traveling from Georgia, the highway narrows from six lanes to four lanes – with rusty guardrails flanking the roadside. Trash is everywhere, greeting visiting motorists as they pass through a 1990s-era stucco display that might as well be the entrance to a drug kingpin’s barn – or a trailer park. Which … is fitting. Traffic grinds to a slow crawl, then proceeds in stop-and-go fashion for the next fifty miles. Worst of all is the pavement – which resembles an Afghan airstrip following...