President Barack Obama’s signing ceremony for the federal transportation bill was like the graduation ceremony for a school’s most unruly, homework-averse, thick-headed student: The crowd offers up a hearty round of applause, partly out of a sense of relief.
At the least, lawmakers beat a deadline to keep the money flowing out of Washington, at current levels for most current programs, so they can duck any accusation of base nonfeasance. Passage came after House Republicans did the right thing and dropped the politics-driven Keystone Pipeline as a condition and agreed to keep funding the nation’s mass-transit system.
But the gargantuan bill was essentially accomplished through a series of budget tricks that masked the nation’s underinvestment in roads, bridges and mass transit, and only after transportation was crammed into the legislative blender with a bizarre collection of ingredients — like student loan subsidies, rural schools and wind insurance.
How did Congress manage to pay for the $105 billion approved for transportation over two years? Not just with federal motor-fuels taxes, since those are falling far short of replenishing the Highway Trust Fund. Since Congress doesn’t have the will to raise gasoline taxes — a fair, pay-as-you-go user fee — lawmakers got a bailout from the treasury again, then scrounged around for politically safe places to hit up.
Among others, the bill is funded with new taxes on tobacco shops that provide machines where customers can roll their own cigarettes and with higher premiums for the federal corporation that backstops pension systems.
This is not the way to run a railroad. The truth-in-spending watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense calculated that it will take 10 years of increased revenue from the pension provisions to pay for about two years of transportation funding. “Congress has chosen the easy way out,” the group said. Disagree?
There is one unmistakable bright spot in the legislation, from a Texas point of view: Each state is guaranteed a 95 percent return on gas taxes it sends to Washington, an improvement from the 92 percent Texas sends up now. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has long worked on a fairer return for Texas, and the $2 billion extra a year is sorely needed for our growing state.
State and local transportation planners had hopes that Congress could finally harness the vision for the first long-term transportation spending plan in years, after a four-year plan expired in 2009. Instead, Congress passed a series of nine stopgap extensions before finishing work on the 27-month deal that Obama signed last week.
The bill was dubbed MAP-21 — Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century — and hailed as a jobs generator. It feels like merely inching ahead. It would feel like progress when lawmakers dispense with budget gimmickry and use straightforward accounting to pay the nation’s cost of transportation.
Transportation bill provisions
Transfers nearly $19 billion from the U.S. Treasury to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat
Boosts Texas’ rate of return on motor-fuels taxes sent to Washington to 95 percent, up from the current 92 percent — a $2 billion annual increase
Maintains the 80-20 ratio for roadway and mass-transit funding
Waives environmental reviews for projects with minimal federal funds and within current highway corridors, which could speed the I-35E widening between Dallas and Denton
Expands the money available and broadens criteria for loans to state and local projects
Gives I-69 designation to highway segments along the Texas Gulf Coast
Restricts the number of new tolled lanes on an interstate highway to the number of free lanes
Transportation Bill Jammed with Budget Gimmickry (Dallas News)
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