A compromise on the Highway Trust Fund is coming – it would raise the gas tax and stave off transportation collapse
Jones 6-19
[Kevin. Staff Writer for Overdrive. “Fuel tax hike proposed in Senate to shore up highway funding” 6/19/14 http://www.overdriveonline.com/fuel-tax-hike-proposed-in-senate-to-shore-up-highway-funding/ ]
A proposal in the Senate is pursing the oft-cited and trucking-backed solution for shoring up the Highway Trust Fund: an increase in the tax on diesel and gasoline at the pump. ¶ The proposal by Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Chris Murphy of Connecticut would raise the fuel tax six cents a year over two years, then index the tax to inflation. The federal fuel tax has not been raised since 1993, and since then the revenue it generates has lost nearly half its buying power.¶ “For too long, Congress has shied away from taking serious action to update our country’s aging infrastructure,” says Murphy. “We’re currently facing a transportation crisis that will only get worse if we don’t take bold action to fund the Highway Trust Fund. I know raising the gas tax isn’t an easy choice, but we’re not elected to make easy decisions – we’re elected to make the hard ones.”¶ To offset the revenue raised from increasing the fuel tax, Murphy and Corker propose providing net tax relief for American families and businesses. An example would be extending some of the tax provisions in the “tax extenders” bill that already have broad, bipartisan support, creating potentially billions of dollars in permanent tax relief over the next 10 years alone, the senators suggest.¶ “Growing up in Tennessee as a conservative, I learned that if something was important enough to have, it was important enough to pay for,” says Corker. “In Washington, far too often, we huff and puff about paying for proposals that are unpopular, yet throw future generations under the bus when public pressure mounts on popular proposals that have broad support. Congress should be embarrassed that it has played chicken with the Highway Trust Fund and allowed it to become one of the largest budgeting failures in the federal government.”¶ A number of business, labor and construction groups have already lined up in support of the Murphy-Corker proposal.¶ American Trucking Associations officials praised the plan because it preserves the “user pays” principle.¶ “We have long said that the fuel tax is the fairest, most efficient way to fund our nation’s infrastructure and this practical, bipartisan proposal put forward by Sens. Murphy and Corker would put the Highway Trust Fund on the path to solvency and provide the revenues we need to maintain a 21st Century transportation network,” says ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.¶ Likewise, the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates credited Murphy and Corker for proposing a transportation funding solution that does not include tolling existing interstates.¶ And NATSO, the national association representing truckstops and travel plazas, also applauded the proposal.
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But time and an atmosphere of cooperation are key – the plan’s controversial nature interrupts both of these things
Sanchez 6-10
[Humberto. Politics for Roll Call. “Senate Democrats Have Full Agenda Ahead” Roll Call, 6/10/14 ln]
There are just seven legislative weeks left before the August recess.¶ A new highway bill tops the list of must-pass items wanted by both parties, but it may also be the most vexing because lawmakers have yet to agree on how to pay for roads, bridges and other transportation items in a time when gas tax revenues are under pressure from rising vehicle mileage standards.¶ Congress must act before the end of the summer when the highway trust fund runs out of money.¶ Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has said he is “pulling out all the stops to find a funding solution to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent” and wants to find a consensus by the end of the month.¶ A short-term extension may be needed, a Democratic aide
