Baltimore Sun: Running on empty

[marmar]

Running on empty
Our view: As motorists cut back, a transportation crisis worsens
July 30, 2008


People are driving less, a lot less. That's hardly shocking given high gasoline prices and the downturn in the economy, and not entirely bad. Lowered consumption and greater fuel efficiency can only help the environment and loosen, if perhaps only slightly, the nation's dependence on foreign oil. But the trend is also disastrous for the financing of the nation's transportation infrastructure.

At a time when the U.S. should be investing more in its deteriorating roads and bridges, the gasoline-tax-financed highway trust fund is oversubscribed and teetering on bankruptcy. In Maryland, the state transportation trust fund's projected revenues may be off by as much as 5 percent to 10 percent. Officials are still calculating exactly what this might mean over the next six years, but it's safe to assume that significant highway and transit spending cuts will have to be made.

A number of factors have made the situation worse, including a record drop in car sales (vehicle titling taxes are second only to the gas tax as the largest source of revenue to the trust fund) and a doubling in the cost of asphalt over the past year.

But if the situation in Maryland is alarming, the federal government's predicament is disastrous. The federal trust fund was in trouble before the energy crisis. The $8 billion general fund infusion approved last week by the House represents, at best, a temporary Band-Aid. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.transpo30jul30,0,1599637.story

[Vogon_Glory]

1. The Future of Highway Funding--It Won't Be Pretty

I suspect that as oil prices rise and people stop driving as much or turn to alternate means of propulsion for their cars, state, federal, and local governments are going to have to turn to other means of funding highway construction and repair. I suspect that it won't be pretty.

Most of us already know about toll roads and privatization, so I won't go into that.

I don't see how you can collect gasoline taxes on battery-powered cars or trucks running on used restaurant oil. What I suspect that we WILL see are MUCH higher automobile registration fees as well as higher fees for licence plate renewals. These may no longer be the "good old days" of the great American road trip, but they aren't as bad as things are likely to get before too long.