Today in “well, we saw this coming” news, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said that Congressional leaders are working on a short-term $10 billion proposal to fund highway repairs through the end of the year, but a gas tax hike will not be part of the deal.
The Highway Trust Fund will run dry at month’s end, and Ryan, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, speaking with reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast last Thursday, indicated that he is working with Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak), the ranking member of the committee, along with Senate Finance chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore) on a further short-term solution.
“We are running numbers,” Ryan said, characterizing the talks as at an early stage “to figure out the short-term patch. We have to come up with $10 billion. We’re not going to raise gas taxes.”
The subtext, familiar perhaps to Roads & Bridges readers, is that a gas tax increase is a possible means of long-term funding sourcing—a means now closed off to leaders looking to draw up a solution.
One ray of light came when Ryan said that he agrees with the Obama administration that Congress should work toward a six-year highway bill, a point that Transportation Secretary Foxx has recently voiced disappointment toward in Congress, as more hasn’t been done. In February, the Obama administration unveiled its $478 billion, six-year surface transportation bill, which has not received widespread support, a point unsurprising heading into an election year. Over the last six years, Congress has approved 32 short-term funding patches, adding more than $60 billion to the highway trust fund gas taxes. None of these extenuating measures has approached sustainability.
Foxx has of late noted that as the American population grows—the country will add some 70 million people in the next 30 years—urban concentration will increase, and the country will have to grapple with more traffic jams. Moreover, as the population ages and life expectancy grows, more people will no longer able to drive it, thus raising questions about whether adequate mass-transit systems will be in place.
A long-term solution, which it seems blatantly obvious is needed, remains past the horizon line, or so it seems.
