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Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Talks of Hike in Federal Gas Tax

December 2nd, 2009 Jericho McCain Leave a comment Go to comments

FORT WORTH — Congress should consider raising the federal gas tax for the first time since 1993, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday during a visit to Fort Worth.

LaHood pledged to work with Congress on passing a five-year transportation bill in 2010. The main sticking point, he said, is that although about $500 billion in highway, bridge and transit needs have been identified, the federal gas tax — 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline — can’t generate that much revenue.

One idea — indexing the gas tax so it increases gradually, as the cost of building roads goes up — is gaining steam at the state and federal levels. Texans pay the federal tax and a 20 cents-a-gallon state tax.

“The problem we have is, Congress wants to pass a very robust transportation bill in the neighborhood of $400 billion or $500 billion, and we know the highway trust fund is just deficient in its ability to fund those kinds of projects,” LaHood said at the seventh annual North Texas Transportation Summit at Texas Motor Speedway.

“The highway trust fund was substantial at one time, but now with people driving less, and driving more fuel-efficient cars, it has become deficient. To index the federal fuel tax, that’s something Congress is going to have to decide.

“When the gas tax was raised in 1992 or 1993, in the Clinton administration, there was a big debate whether it should be indexed. At that time, they thought there’d be a sufficient amount of money collected. Now we know that isn’t the case.”

Later Monday, LaHood spokeswoman Maureen Knightly clarified that the Obama administration still opposes increasing the gas tax, and that LaHood merely supports a debate on funding alternatives.

Other revenue sources

LaHood spoke to about 300 elected officials, engineers and other policymakers during the one-day summit, hosted by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville. Although calling for a gas tax debate, LaHood didn’t declare that the Obama administration would support an increase. Instead, he called on Congress to decide.

But broaching the subject of a gas tax increase is a dramatic shift.

During the Bush presidency, officials were quick to rule it out. LaHood also highlighted other means of increasing highway funds, including charging tolls, state infrastructure bank loans, selling bonds and eventually a per-mile fee charged to motorists based on when, where and how often they drive.

Burgess, who opposed the stimulus bill and has not supported the concept of a gas tax increase in the past, said Congress should instead give state and local governments more discretion to spend federal funds.

“We earmark money for transit. We earmark money for shrubs in the median,” Burgess said. “There has to be more flexibility built into this transportation bill.”

Tower 55

The summit was packed with Fort Worth-area leaders who want LaHood to spend an additional $60.9 million on the Tower 55 railroad project, which would include adding a third north-south rail line and 9,000 feet of track, and making improvements to several vehicle and pedestrian crossings near downtown.

Students walking to Charles E. Nash Elementary School have been known to cross the tracks as trains are moving.

LaHood said his office will decide by early 2010 where to spend the stimulus funds, but he offered no promises that the money will be spent on Tower 55 or any other Metroplex project. He said the emphasis is on projects that create jobs.

Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway and Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific have agreed to cover a third of the Tower 55 costs, estimated at $93.7 million. If the project is awarded federal stimulus dollars in early 2010, the improvements can be made by 2012, said Nate Asplund, BNSF director of public-private partnerships.