Posted on 02/21/2016 10:56:22 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The federal government would get more bang for their buck if U.S. drivers were charged directly for their use of highways through tolls or mileage fees, a new study from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says.
The report from Congress's budgetary scorekeepers says current "spending on highways does not correspond very well with how the roads are used and valued."
The CBO said mechanisms like tolling, mileage fees or congestion pricing could be considered to fund transportation projects in lieu of relying mostly on gas tax revenue.
"Almost all federal spending for highways occurs through formula grants to state and local governments, and historically, less than half of the funding has been tied directly to the amount of travel on the roads," the report said.
"Although data from the past 20 years show that, on average, pavement quality is improving, fewer bridges have deficiencies, and highway fatalities occur less frequently, those averages mask differences between urban and rural areas and between interstate highways and other roads, differences that sometimes are not reflected in spending," the report continued.
"For example, even though highway travel is more concentrated on Interstates and in urban areas, and urban roads are typically in poorer condition than rural ones, the federal government and state governments typically have spent more per mile of travel for major repairs on rural roads," the CBO said.
The finding comes after lawmakers passed a five-year, $305 billion highway bill last fall.
Lawmakers relied on a package of approximately $70 billion of offsets from other areas of the federal budget to help pay for the recently completely highway bill, which lasts until 2021.
The traditional source of transportation funding has been the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gas tax. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and improved fuel efficiency has sapped its purchasing power.
The federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in approximately $34 billion annually at its current rate.
Lawmakers turned to other areas of the federal budget to close the $16 billion per year gap last year, but the CBO said they would have been better off finding another funding mechanism that would charge drivers directly for their highway use.
"Charging drivers specifically for using roads would increase economic output by allowing highly valued transportation to move more quickly and more reliably," the study said. "Such pricing could take the form of per-mile charges (also known as vehicle-miles traveled, or VMT, charges), congestion charges, or tolls on Interstate highways.
"When faster travel and avoiding delays were a priority, drivers could opt to pay for the use of a less congested road, and when travel speed was less important, they could use a road with a lower fee or avoid paying a fee by using a road without one," the report continued. "Charges that varied by time of day or that differed by road would also affect economic activity by limiting congestion."
Tolling advocates cheered the CBO for concluding that it could be used more often to fund highways.
“The CBO’s objective, impartial analysis of tolling as one funding method provides valuable insights in today's world where every highway dollar counts,†International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) Executive Director Patrick Jones said in a statement.
“And as the study makes clear, tolls have the potential to do much more than fund the maintenance, repair and expansion of our highway system,†Jones continued. “As CBO explains in its report, implementing tolls on highly traveled highways can boost productivity by incentivizing more efficient travel patterns for workers, and by reducing delivery and inventory costs associated with goods by moving them more quickly to their destinations, among other benefits. These kinds of gains extend far into the broader economy.â€
The CBO has projected that it would have taken about $100 billion, in addition to the annual gas tax receipts, to pay for a six-year transportation bill, which is the traditional lengthy of highway funding measures.
The full report from the CBO can be read here.
PING!
Bullsh1t.
This is about tracking people.
Resist we much. /sharpton
Resist we much another day /GOP-e.
Gasoline tax would go a long way toward covering highways, if government didn’t steal those funds to use on their inner city pet projects.
Then they push tolls, additional gas taxes, whatever else they can come up with.
Just say no citizens!
No, Toll Authorities are horrible shepherds of the funds they collect. They are constantly building and rebuilding toll booths because they are flush with cash, become a haven for failed politicians, their contracting practices are suspect, and there is little accountability to the public. Have you ever heard of tolls being lowered? Compare what Orange County, Florida does for their stretch of Route 528 “the Beach Line” and their toll infrastructure versus Brevard County where they pulled down the toll booths and do just as good a job of maintaining the highway as does the toll authority. Forget the theory, look at reality.
How about putting illegals to work building roads?
The commies at “The Hill” never met a tax they didn’t like.
A tax by any other name.
You have hit it.
Get caught as an illegal and you are on a chain gang for 12 months before being deported.
gas tax revenue is already a ‘mileage’ fee. The more mileage you drive, the more you fill up and the more gas taxes you pay. But you just know, by renaming the revenue a ‘mileage fee’ means it will go up more than you’re paying now in gas taxes because they’ll need to hire staff to read all those odometers.
Yes. They were lowered last year in my state (Maryland).
I thought the Magic Negro's "Stimulus 1" Was supposed to take care of all that.
When was that? 2009?
Yup.
It is not about taxes. It is about tracking everywhere you go.
The govt admitting it cannot properly administer revenue.
BS if politicians have access to the money it will never be spent correctly- or more bluntly it will be squandered.
However if they persist with this line- they need to remove all taxes on petroleum products
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