Panel Reviews Gas Tax Alternatives

Members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood agreed that creativity is needed to find a permanent and sustainable way to provide money for the Highway Trust Fund, but solutions mentioned during a budget hearing on Thursday broke no new ground.

After LaHood told the committee, “the administration doesn’t want to raise the gas tax – I’ll be emphatic on that,” Chairman John W. Olver, D-Mass., asked LaHood for alternatives.

LaHood said, “There are four or five things we can do,” and mentioned high-occupancy toll lanes, toll bridges and public-private partnerships, ideas espoused by the Bush administration. He also mentioned a Senate proposal for a national infrastructure investment bank.

Earlier this week, the administration announced that the trust fund would be insolvent in August, and $5 billion to $7 billion will be needed to keep it going. Last September, Congress voted to infuse the fund with $8 billion from the government’s general fund.

LaHood told the committee that HTF revenue – which receives 18.4 cents for each gallon of gasoline sold – had declined because Americans are driving less, and the shortfall has been exacerbated by the current recession. Several members of Congress agree with two national commissions that a fuel tax increase is one of the few short-term solutions available.

LaHood said that the administration would soon present Congress with its wish list for a new six-year surface transportation bill. Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., planned to introduce the House version of the bill in about two weeks.

LaHood and members of the subcommittee acknowledged that the current transportation bill will expire before Congress completes its successor, but the committee did not indicate if it would authorize an emergency transfer of general fund money to bolster the Highway Trust Fund until the new bill takes effect.

Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com.