Developed in consultation with teams of transportation professionals, public officials and stakeholders, The Route to Reform
“As the existing program has lost focus and energy, we find ourselves with an aging, yet incomplete transportation system that is not prepared to serve the changing America of the 21st century,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America. “Our coalition is prepared to lend considerable support for a much larger investment in transportation, but we believe that only a reinvigorated, redirected federal program will win buy-in from our coalition and American taxpayers in general.”
In the blueprint, Transportation for America recommends Congress include four critical reforms in the upcoming transportation authorization bill:
1) Articulate a national vision, objectives and performance targets for the national transportation program and hold state and local transportation agencies accountable for demonstrable progress toward goals including safety, efficiency, environment, health and equity.
2) Restructure and consolidate federal programs for greater modal integration, with a focus on completing the second half of the national transportation system, providing more transportation options for all Americans and creating seamless transportation systems that meet the unique needs and connect metropolitan regions, small towns and rural areas.
3) Empower states, regions and cities with direct transportation funding and greater flexibility to select projects, using carrots and sticks to encourage wise transportation investments and in return require demonstrated performance on meeting national objectives.
4) Reform how we pay for the transportation system and create a Unified Transportation Trust Fund that would achieve balanced allocations of federal funds in a portfolio of rail, freight, highway, public transportation and non-motorized transportation investments.
The Route to Reform breaks with convention by calling on Congress to not increase taxes to provide additional funding to the federal transportation program unless it also institutes critical reforms. In the summer of 2008, Congress had to patch the Highway Trust Fund with an $8 billion infusion from the general fund. A similar fix may be needed again this summer and long-term projections show that the current funding mechanisms will not meet future needs.
“Increased revenues for transportation are needed to pay for necessary upgrades to the federal program, but we can only support more money if it’s accompanied by a bold new vision for a 21st century transportation system,” said Corless. “As a nation, we want people to use less oil and gasoline, not more, so we are sunk in the long run if we rely only on the gas tax. We should look at a variety of potential revenue strategies, but that must go hand-in-hand with reforms to help spend these funds more wisely.”
The T4America analysts concluded that in the short run, it may be necessary to raise the federal gas tax or to move to a sales tax on fuels or a surcharge on oil in preparation for a transition to a tax based on vehicle miles traveled. Read the report at http://t4america.org/blueprint.
