Source:
Detroit NewsWednesday, July 23, 2008
Private funding, tolls pushed to fix roads
U.S. Transportation Secretary says she's opposed to efforts to raise gas tax.
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters plans to propose a radical reform of how the nation finances highway projects, urging a big boost in the amount of private sector funding for road improvements.
In a nearly hour-long interview with The Detroit News, Peters also voiced strong opposition to any efforts to boost the federal gas tax, the primary revenue source for the highway trust fund. The current six-year $286.4 billion road funding law expires in 2009, and Congress will spend much of next year fighting over how to pay for the nation's crumbling roads, bridges and highways.
"The current system just is not working," Peters said Monday, noting the current system of predominantly gas tax funded highway construction was too complex with too many programs and little flexibility. "What are we buying with the public's money and are we getting a good return on that investment?"
The highway trust fund faces a looming shortfall of as much as $4.3 billion -- in part because Americans have used 1.5 percent less gasoline to date in 2008, providing less revenue from the federal gas tax. Peters is opposed to raising the gas tax, which has remained at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, or indexing it to inflation.
Read more:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080723/BIZ/807230336
Just what kind of "return on investment" are we getting from our Iraq spending?