Transportation Financing Reports
Brookings
Institution: Gas Tax Basics
In this report, Brookings experts explore the “collection,
allocation, and use of federal and state taxes on motor fuels.”
Their findings reveal that gas tax revenues make up a large percentage
(more than 1/3) of funds available for highways at both the state
and federal level. In the late 1990s, the incoming gas tax funds
plateaued with an actual decline in gas tax revenues when these
figures are adjusted for inflation. At the state level the gas tax
has generally failed to match inflation even though twenty-eight
states have raised their gas taxes since 1992; only three states
raised their gas tax rate enough to compensate for inflation. Thirty
states currently restrict their ability to fund mass transit or
air quality improvement projects by dedicating their gas tax revenue
for highway purposes only. In addition, the allocation of gas tax
funds in several states creates what what Brookings calls “donor
regions” in which cities and urban areas are paying significantly
more into the gas tax accounts than they are receiving in transportation
funds. Brookings Institution Publication by Robert Puentes and
Ryan Prince, March 2003
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released this 2005
report on financing transportation projects. The study
outlines new options to fund the nation’s transportation system,
including switching from the motor fuel tax to a vehicle mile tax
or expanding the use of tolling by state and local governments
Investment
Banker Felix Rohatyn and former U.S. Senator Warren Rudman are co-chairing
the Commission on Public Infrastructure of the Center for Strategic
and International Studies. The two have offered up a plan for overhauling
the federal role in infrastructuring financing by establishing a
National Investment Corporation to issue bonds and oversee funding. Read
More: "It's Time to Rebuild America", by Felix Rohaytn and Warren
Rudman in the Washington Post.
Brookings
Institution: Improving Efficiency and Equity in Transportation Finance
This report summarizes the major changes that are altering
transportation finance, and argues that an increased reliance on
user fees remains the most hopeful way of maintaining efficient
and equitable funding systems for transportation. "User fees" are
funds collected from individuals who use the roads. The most common
user fees are tolls and fuel taxes, which impose charges generally
proportionally to travelers' use of roadways. Because of the discrepancy
between higher transportation program costs and shrinking incoming
revenue from fuel taxes, the bulk of transportation funding is being
shifted to local governments. Sales taxes and voter-approved ballot
measures are popular funding avenues at the local level, while user-fees
are used less often. The report argues that while fuel taxes are
“viable and practical” in the short term, that user fees collected
electronically assure the most flexible and suitable long term method
of user fee financing for transportation. By Martin Wachs, May
2003
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