By: Will Wilkins
The kickoff on reauthorization was officially launched in
January with the opening of the new Congress and the
presentation of President Clinton's budget.
Highway funding
levels for years to come will be determined by what happens in
reauthorization this year. Working with other highway
construction groups, TRIP calculated that the just released
budget would cut federal highway spending by 2.5% in fiscal
1998.
TRIP felt it was important to immediately get the
message out to the media about the funding cut, and to do so by
comparing what the current conditions are on the nation's
highways. TRIP issued the following lead in its news release:
"The just released president's budget would cut federal highway
spending 2.5% at a time when newly released data show that 59%
of the major roads in the U.S. are in need of repair or
improvement . . ."
In addition to issuing a national news
release, we issued news releases in targeted states identified
by industry lobbyists as being critical in the upcoming year. In
each state, TRIP evaluated highway data to determine the
important news angle.
TRIP will be working closely during
the coming year to do numerous targeted approaches. The overall
message is that the proposed funding cut comes at an unfortunate
time because the nation's vehicle travel is increasing and the
nation's road and bridge system still has high levels of
deterioration.
"Instead of making cuts, we should be looking
at a program that is in the range of $26 billion a year, which
amounts to about a 30% increase. This is an amount the federal
Highway Trust Fund could support without a tax increase."
In
our news release, we pointed out that data just released by the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show that 9.5% of the
country's major roads are in poor condition. Overall, FHWA data
shows that 59.3% of the nation's major roads are in poor or fair
condition.
We also will use the opportunity to generate
media coverage and educate the public about the need to take the
federal Highway Trust Fund off-budget. TRIP's same news release
showed that more than $20 billion in revenue collected from
motorists currently sits unspent in the trust fund, and that
figure could increase over the next five years. Under President
Clinton's proposed budget, the trust fund balance could balloon
to about $48 billion by 2002.
Wilkins is the executive
director of The Road Information Program. You may write to him
in care of the editor.