Florida Congressman Calls for Additional Transportation Funding

WASHINGTON - The anemic federal highway trust fund and the overall U.S. transportation funding system are in dire need of help from Washington lawmakers, Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., said yesterday at a meeting of transportation officials in Florida.

But in a telephone interview following his address, Mica said one commuter rail project in his home state is taking a step forward. Mica said that a Florida commuter rail project has been authorized to receive $30 million in matching federal funds from the Federal Transit Administration. The project has been approved to begin the final design phase, which will allow it to acquire land, equipment and design contracts.

The only hurdle remaining for the rail project is the full funding agreement, he said. During the meeting, Mica said the federal highway system should be buttressed by a second economic stimulus package with transportation funding provisions.

Later, he said in an interview that he is unsure whether Congress will approve an $8 billion transfer from the general fund into the highway trust fund but added: "I expect that in the continuing resolution to fund government, we'd make an attempt to spend probably somewhere between $5 billion and $6 billion dollars because we expect further losses in the [highway trust] fund."

As the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Mica told transportation officials at the meeting that he plans to unveil legislation next month that would overhaul the federal transportation system at a price tag of up to $1.5 trillion. He called the bill a more expansive version of a transportation funding overhaul plan put forward by the U.S. Department of Transportation last month. The DOT's plan would encourage the use of public-private partnerships, state infrastructure banks, and private-activity bonds.

Mica expects the federal highway trust fund that relies mostly on gasoline tax revenues to have a $4 billion to $5 billion shortfall by the end of fiscal 2009, which will have a ripple effect on state transportation budgets.

His said his plan will "go for the big bucks" by proposing $1.5 trillion for a program that would encourage "creative financing" through such things as public-private partnerships, bonds, and federal-state partnerships. New York CityMayor Michael Bloomberg and Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell have endorsed "the basic idea" behind his proposal, Mica said.

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