WASHINGTON • For years, the barge industry has complained that aging locks and dams hike the cost of waterborne cargo and pose an ever-present danger of shutting down traffic altogether on the Mississippi and other major rivers.
In response, Congress has authorized new locks and other rehab construction, five major projects on the upper Mississippi River alone. But most are proceeding slowly or are delayed. Why?
The long-delayed Olmsted Locks and Dam project in Southern Illinois is draining the construction trust fund.
To revive that account, the industry is pressing for changes that would shift more of the costs for modernizing the marine transportation system to taxpayers.
Without the change, “We’ll just have continual delays and increased costs in moving goods around that diminish our global competitiveness,” warned Mark Knoy, president and CEO of Indiana-based American Commercial Lines, which operates 2,300 barges powered by more than 100 towboats.
Since the 1980s, the Inland Waterways Trust Fund has been supported half by taxpayers and half by the 20-cent per-gallon fuel tax shippers pay. Nearly all of it is devoted to Olmsted, an albatross the industry wants to shed.
Legislation for Army Corps of Engineers projects that already has passed the Senate shifts 100 percent of the remaining cost of Olmsted — at least $1.6 billion — to taxpayers rather than the 50-50 split.
Last week, a House version, called the Water Resources Reform & Development Act, proposed that 75 percent of the Olmsted cost come from the federal treasury.
The House legislation reauthorizes Olmsted for another five years and recommends spending at least $150 million annually So taxpayers would be on the hook for $112.5 million every year until the dam is finished, in 2020 or beyond.
That would bolster the trust fund by tens of millions of dollars to begin tackling a backlog of river projects.
“We believe that’s a first step toward getting some of those dollars out there to other really important projects that are being neglected and are in danger of being shut down or failing,” said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
On Tuesday, Shuster plans to conduct a Twitter Town Hall on the new legislation.
Like the Senate bill, the House legislation directs the corps to reform its management methods so as to prevent more planning debacles like Olmsted.
The industry also seeks to strike a bargain under which shippers pay a higher fuel tax — as much as an 9 cents additionally per gallon — in return for taxpayers adding a corresponding amount into the trust fund. That proposal will play out in coming weeks.
Taxpayers for Common Sense is among the watchdog groups critical of shifting more of the Olmsted burden to the treasury. The advocacy group’s Joshua Sewell said that river transportation already is a highly subsidized industry with taxpayers spending some $600 million yearly for dredging and other maintenance.
“If anything, the users should be paying more for the system they use,” he said. “People need to be held accountable for the failure to build Olmsted in a cost-effective way. The corps is responsible, but responsibility also falls on the users.”
Original Publication URL: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/river-industry-cites-olmsted-failure-in-push-for-taxpayer-aid/article_51110ab9-8427-536c-96f5-88c5c86cca04.html
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