Ray LaHood, the U.S. Transportation secretary, is a politician with lots of enthusiasm for transforming our nation’s transportation system, but he’s stuck with an enormous problem:
How to pay for it all?
LaHood met with our editorial board Tuesday to discuss his goals, many of which are appealing to active and growing communities like those of metro Denver.
The new secretary wants to see bikes paths help commuters use pedal power to unclog congested streets and reduce pollution. He wants light rail spread through more cities.
Another big goal of the Obama administration, LaHood stresses, is the building of high-speed rail to link up far away cities.
Right out of the gate, funding is relatively easy. The $787 billion pool of federal funding meant to stimulate the economy includes $48 billion for Department of Transportation spending, LaHood said. Of that, $8 billion is dedicated for high-speed rail.
He adds that Obama seeks to include $1 billion each budget year for five years directly tied to financing the beginnings of a high-speed rail system. Someday, LaHood hopes, maybe 20 years from now, Americans will be zipping along in trains at 250 miles per hour, much as they do now in countries like Spain.
And though he had no details, LaHood said he hoped to also upgrade the aging air traffic-control systems at our nation’s airports.
But LaHood faces a problem. As he rather dramatically put it: “America is one big pothole. We have ignored our infrastructure for some time.”
As Coloradans know, the gas tax- supported transportation trust fund that helps states build and maintain highways and roadways is broken. As cars’ fuel-efficiencies increase, the 18.4 cents per gallon tax has left the trust fund near empty. The fund will hit bottom by the end of September, and LaHood is asking Congress to give him $20 billion to last another 18 months rather than supporting efforts to push a $450 billion, six-year spending plan through Congress this year.
The timing on that, LaHood says, is poor, because taxpayers already are being asked to fund big-ticket items like the stimulus bill and a nearly $4 trillion spending budget this year. Add on the president’s priorities to pass a “cap-and-trade” system, and legislation that would transform health care, and LaHood is smart to wait until the stimulus runs out before asking for his piece of the pie.
Besides, raising the gas tax or imposing other fees, such as a Vehicle Miles Traveled tax, appears to be off the table until after congressional elections in 2010.
Meanwhile, LaHood hopes to find ways to support public-private partnerships to help maintain and expand the roadways that handle the great bulk of trips.
As we said during the past state legislative session, it’s high time we had an honest debate about the gas tax, or some new revenue stream for transportation. Though we don’t consider our system as bad as LaHood’s “one big pothole,” we do need to make up the funding gap to ensure that Americans can continue to move freely and our economy remains competitive.
