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.
