Transportation Funding

 

WHEREAS, Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution states the duty of the federal government to provide support for a national transportation system; and

WHEREAS, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act ("MAP-21") enacted in July 2012 provided a general fund transfer of $18.8 billion to preserve Highway Trust Fund solvency only into Fiscal Year 2014, and general fund transfers amounting to $64.1 billion have been necessary to support federal highway and transit program levels between 2008 and 2015; and

WHEREAS, the motor fuel taxes, which comprise about 90 percent of Highway Trust Fund receipts, are facing challenges to their long-term sustainability due to gradual loss of purchasing power resulting from inflation, stagnation in vehicle miles traveled, improved average vehicle fuel economy, and introduction of alternative-fuel vehicle fleets; and

WHEREAS, the Highway Trust Fund is currently experiencing a deficit between receipts and outlays averaging $17 billion per year; and

WHEREAS, recent action by Congress only provides funding from the Highway Trust Fund through May 31, 2015.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the federal government must continue to play a vibrant and stable funding role in an integrated and multi-modal national surface transportation system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, Congress should consider a sustainable investment level that would be required to equal and maintain—in real terms—the revenue levels that were achieved in 1993 from federal motor fuel taxes and other Highway Trust Fund revenue sources. This would be an average of $73.3 billion per year between 2015 and 2020. This investment level will enable the nation’s transportation infrastructure to once again help enhance America’s global competitiveness.

 

Approved by the SASHTO Board of Directors
on August 26, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana

 

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