{"id":43400,"date":"2014-07-08T14:48:10","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T20:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/08\/the-crisis-with-the-highway-trust-fund.html"},"modified":"2014-07-09T20:37:11","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T02:37:11","slug":"the-crisis-with-the-highway-trust-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/08\/the-crisis-with-the-highway-trust-fund.html","title":{"rendered":"The crisis with the Highway Trust Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
So the Federal Highway Trust Fund — which is filled up by federal gasoline taxes — may go broke as soon as next month. The result of which is that the already-inadequate repair and maintenance work going on with the nation's highways and bridges will come to a halt, worsening our infrastructure problems and<\/i> putting hundreds of thousands of construction workers out of work.<\/p>\n

Why the crisis? As the article breaks out below, it's pretty simple: the federal gas tax is broken. It's not a percent of the price you pay (which would keep it in line with energy inflation), but a flat tax of 18.4 cents a gallon, which hasn't been raised in twenty years (it was raised during the Reagan, GHW Bush, and Clinton administrations, but not since then), even while construction costs have continue to rise and the highway infrastructure has aged.<\/p>\n

It gets worse: people aren't driving as much (due to higher gasoline costs) and the cars they are driving are increasingly fuel-efficient. That means less hits against that 18.4 cents.<\/p>\n

Another claimed contributing (though mitigated) factor is that a proportion of the gas tax (3.5 cents) goes to a federal mass transit fund, which was signed into law by Reagan. The idea was that expanded and more-used mass transit would reduce the impact on highways, which may well be the case. That\u00a0doesn't impact trucking, but diesel fuel is a separate tax (22.4 cents per gallon). Some folk who aren't in a position to use mass transit argue that the whole fund should be put into highway maintenance (those are usually, though not always, the same people who think mass transit is a Marxist plot to take away our pickup trucks), though it's worth noting that the monies haven't been diverted by evil commies like Reagan into mass transit, but that increases included a component for mass transit.<\/p>\n

Congress has fiddle-farted over what to do about all of this for a couple of decades now (the trust fund has already been rescued by General Revenue transfers a couple of times in that period). \u00a0 Indexing the tax to inflation, simply voting in an increase in the tax, or even shifting to a less variable (but more contentious) mileage<\/i> tax, have all been discussed. \u00a0The problem is, when the only alternatives acceptable to one party are "Let it shut down," "We should have a gas tax holiday," or "We'll add funding if we can make it up with food stamp money," the problem doesn't seem very solvable.<\/p>\n

Maybe all those Big Businesses that depend on federal highways and bridges to actually, y'know, move their goods across the country,<\/i> might want to chime in soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Obligatory Disclosure: I work for a company that is involved in both highway and mass transit construction.)\ufeff<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Why the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money, in 5 graphs<\/a>
\n Less, more efficient driving is a big problem for highway revenue.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So the Federal Highway Trust Fund — which is filled up by federal gasoline taxes — may go broke as soon as next month. The result of which is that the already-inadequate repair and maintenance work going on with the nation's highways and bridges will come to a halt, worsening our infrastructure problems and putting … Continue reading “The crisis with the Highway Trust Fund”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-taxing-spending"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48708,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/08\/the-gas-tax-and-the-funding-of-highways.html","url_meta":{"origin":43400,"position":0},"title":"The gas tax and the funding of highways","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Dec-14 9:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"A tax on gasoline, whether fixed by the gallon or pegged to inflation, is just generally a bad idea, as fuel consumption is no longer a decent proxy for wear and tear on highways and bridges. And saying, \"Hey, let's raise it now while gas is cheap\" carries with it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2656,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/21\/helping_hands.html","url_meta":{"origin":43400,"position":1},"title":"Helping hands","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-May-02 2:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"You'll no doubt be thrilled to know that the Department of Justice, having largely caved in to Micro$oft on its anti-trust violations, is now vigorously protecting M$ from European concerns...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12431,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/05\/gas_tax_holiday.html","url_meta":{"origin":43400,"position":2},"title":"Gas Tax Holiday","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-May-08 2:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not just a gimmick -- it's a destructive gimmick. Woo-hoo! The Federal gas tax is about 18 cents a gallon; given the way prices have skyrocketed, 18 cents...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/gas-pump.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":33037,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/03\/exxon-enjoys-the-fine-print.html","url_meta":{"origin":43400,"position":3},"title":"Exxon enjoys the fine print","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Apr-13 10:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"That pipeline spill in Arkansas? \u00a0It's being cleaned up by a federal fund specifically designed for the such spills, the imaginatively-named Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. The fund is, in turn, paid for (quite logically) through a tax on piped oil.Except that the type of heavy crude \/ diluted bitumen\u00a0Exxon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18890,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/13\/colorado-ballot-propositions-2010-the-ugly-three.html","url_meta":{"origin":43400,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Ballot Propositions 2010: “The Ugly Three”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Oct-10 9:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The State of Colorado has nine ballot measures this coming election. I'm going to discuss them all, but I want to start with the \"Ugly Three\" (as their opponents have dubbed them). It's not surprising to find regular efforts to hold the line, or even cut back on government spending.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2010"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2010","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2010"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/voting-butterfly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39179,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/10\/stay-classy-arizona.html","url_meta":{"origin":43400,"position":5},"title":"Stay classy, Arizona!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Oct-13 5:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, Arizona's certainly showing its competing \"We're more GOP Than Thou!\" states (Texas, North Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, Wisconsin, etc.) that it's out to win this month's contest, by being the first state to cut Welfare payments.\u00a0'Arizona\u2019s decision to withhold welfare checks because of the federal government shutdown appears to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43425,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43400\/revisions\/43425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}