Upkeep of roads, bridges and transit systems is a high priority to an overwhelming margin of Americans, but by an even greater margin they don’t want to pay more for it, according to a survey that will be released this week.
With the Obama administration’s budget out Monday, House Republicans pursuing an effort to reduce spending by $100 billion and a long-term transportation bill stalled in Congress, 78 percent of those surveyed say private investors should be tapped to rebuild the country’s aging infrastructure.
The poll was commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, which has funded a $66 million transportation initiative, and was conducted this month by Hart Associates.
“Transportation infrastructure affects so many critical issues for the country — economy, social mobility and energy — and it drives our economic growth,” said Nicholas Turner, a managing director of of the Rockefeller Foundation who runs the initiative. “Most people don’t realize that transportation is the second-highest expense for most Americans and the highest for those with the lowest incomes.”
The telephone poll of 1,001 registered voters came four months after a bipartisan panel of 80 transportation experts warned that the transportation system was deteriorating so rapidly that it would undermine U.S. ability to compete in a global economy.
Headed by two former transportation secretaries — Norman Y. Mineta and Samuel K. Skinner — the group estimated that an additional $134 billion to $262 billion must be spent per year through 2035 to rebuild and improve the nation’s roads, rail systems and air transportation.
Their report said a major increase in the federal gas tax, which has remained unchanged since it went up to 18.4 cents per gallon in 1993, might be the most politically palatable way to boost revenue in the short term.
In the long term, however, Americans should expect to pay for each mile they drive, the report said.
The Rockefeller Foundation infrastructure survey found that Americans don’t support either as an option to raise revenues, or any other approach that would tax them directly.
