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America’s crumbling infrastructure: It’s not a sexy problem, but it is a scary one.
View this complete post...John Hennessy III,
P.E.
America’s crumbling infrastructure: It’s not a sexy problem, but it is a scary one.
View this complete post...Anthony Foxx became the 17th United States Secretary of Transportation on July 2, 2013.
“We just appreciate all the efforts to educate folks and to help folks understand that they can play a role in moving America forward. One of the biggest problems we have in infrastructure right now is how to pay for it, and when you start peeling the onion back it gets back to whether the public is actually going to support and get behind efforts to actually pay for what we need. Part of what we’re doing is trying to educate people and connect the dots so that they see that these investments that happen at the federal level aren’t some kind of smoke and mirrors. It’s stuff that actually helps them on the ground.”
View this complete post...Innovation Newsbriefs
Volume 26, No. 2-A
With state transportation revenue on the rise, it is argued, states can assume more funding responsibility for local infrastructure and significantly reduce the annual $13 billion shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund. This is not about devolution, contend advocates of this approach. It’s about a judicious reallocation of federal-state responsibilities, with the federal government able to refocus its gas tax revenue entirely on programs and infrastructure of national significance (notably the Interstate Highway network), thanks to the states’ enhanced fiscal capacity to take care of their highways, bridges and other local transportation needs.
TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA
Transportation for America has closely followed efforts in legislatures across the country to put transportation funding on sound footing. This report highlights critical factors common to many of the campaigns and closely examines several successful campaigns. Learning successful strategies and tactics from other states can be a valuable way for advocates, legislators, and local leaders to build winning campaigns in their own states.
Colorado Dept. of Transportation provides informative video on the benefits of highway express lanes, which speed up traffic flow, manage congestion, and bolster revenue to transportation agencies.
View this complete post...Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 2
With the prospect of a gasoline tax increase pretty much ruled out both by the White House and the Republican House leadership, and with various proposals for funding transportation through corporate tax reform meeting with skepticism from leading Republican lawmakers and thus facing an uncertain future (not to mention their unlikely passage before the current transportation measure expires at the end of May) perhaps the time has come to reconsider the way we fund transportation. Maybe we should abandon our 50-year old reliance on the gasoline tax and the Highway Trust Fund as the sole source of federal revenue and consider additional ways of paying for transportation infrastructure.
SMART GROWTH AMERICA
Appropriate pricing strategies can raise revenues and manage demand, keeping costs down. On the other hand, when transportation system users do not see appropriate price signals, demand is artificially high, increasing congestion and pressure for new capacity. State departments of transportation generally cannot impose price signals on their own, but they can work with a variety of stakeholders and decision-makers, from legislators to insurance companies, to accomplish these goals.
SMART GROWTH AMERICA
Scarce transportation dollars need to be spent where they do the most good. But making changes to long-standing practices, some of which are ensconced in law, can be difficult and present a hurdle to state departments of transportation (DOTs) looking to get the best bang for their buck. Pressing forward with revenue allocation and project selection reform represents a major way in which DOTs can deliver projects with greater impact more quickly. Many agencies are now reforming project selection and formula funding processes for sub-state units of government, often tying proposed spending to state, departmental, and/or local goals and objectives.
JOINT STUDY COMMITTEE ON CRITICAL TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING, GEORGIA
Like many other states, Georgia is faced with a growing crisis with regard to funding the construction, repair, and maintenance of its transportation infrastructure. Georgia primarily funds its transportation needs with a combination of state motor fuel taxes and federal funds.
Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 1
With gasoline prices at a five year low, isn’t this the perfect time to raise the federal gas tax? A growing chorus of voices including several infuential Republican Senators — John Thune (R-SD), Bob Corker (R-TN) Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT)—seem to think so. So does the Washington Post and the New York Times. “Now is the best time Washington has seen in years to raise the federal gas tax,” a Post editorial said. “A modest increase in the gas tax would hardly be noticeable to most Americans,” echoed the New York Times…President Obama isn’t so sure.
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Steve Anderson
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SteveAnderson@InfrastructureUSA.org
917-940-7125