With spending cuts looming and lawmakers eyeing major entitlement and tax reform in the coming months and years, no sector--transportation included--can expect to be spared the budget axe.
The nation's mayors have warned that the $1.2 trillion in automatic year-end spending cuts under sequestration will particularly affect "investments in infrastructure, education, transportation and public safety" and numerous groups have warned about the impact to TIGER funds, Amtrak and other services. The Highway Trust Fund makes no appearance in the administration's sequestration plan, but even that doesn't necessarily mean it won't be subject to the whims of Congress.
Even if sequestration is avoided, transportation won't likely be spared. Last week, the budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense outlined a $2 trillion sequestration alternative--a set of cuts to programs that they deemed to be an "inefficient, ineffective, or wasteful use of taxpayer dollars." Over the next decade, they propose a $188 billion cut to transportation funding, with $110 billion coming out of general revenue transfers to the Highway Trust Fund. Similarly, they proposed a $50 billion cut to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund and a $22 billion cut to Airport Improvement Program grants.
But even the TCS proposal is blunt. Transportation funding will likely suffer cuts, but some are better than others. Are there obsolete programs more worthy of the axe? Or, more positively, do some programs deserve more funding because they offer a better return on investment? What can transportation advocates do to mitigate the impact of what are sure to be painful cuts?
Original Publication URL: http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2012/10/managing-the-pain-of-likely-cu.php
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