WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell said yesterday that he supports delaying a reauthorization of the current six-year transportation law until after the 2010 congressional elections.
The law expires Wednesday.
The Democratic governor made the remarks during a conference here sponsored by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, as House and Senate lawmakers butt heads about just how long a reauthorization should be delayed.
Rendell referred to the lawmakers as “the biggest group of wussies.”
The House this week approved a three-month extension of the current law — the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA-LU — but Senate committees have approved an 18-month extension. The Obama administration proposed the longer extension this summer, and Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez yesterday reaffirmed the administration’s push for an 18-month delay.
“We need to have some thoughtful and rational discussions” about how to pay for transportation in the next several years, Mendez said during the conference.
Market participants, transportation experts, and some lawmakers believe the most likely new revenue source is an increased federal motor fuels tax. However, the last time Congress agreed on increasing the federal gasoline tax, to 18.4 cents per gallon, was in 1993.
Rendell said that if a reauthorization bill was approved now, it would be a “very mediocre bill.” An 18-month delay is a “fait accompli” and “gives us the necessary time to build support” for the next bill, he added.
Rendell also said he wants to see the next law include more private investment opportunity at the state level.
“We desperately need to lift the cap on private-activity bonds,” he said.
The PAB program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation is currently capped at $15 billion of issuance nationally. The program has been under-utilized, at least partly due to the credit crisis. Advocates of raising or removing the cap say that more availability would prompt more investment.
Rendell also said the federal government should give states tolling freedom and that the public hates taxes, not tolls.
In addition, he said the pending reauthorization from House Transportation chairman James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., contains a “dangerous provision” to create an Office of Public Benefit within the U.S. DOT. The office would have some oversight and approval powers over public-private partnerships and toll rates.
“I don’t mean to sound like a big states rightser,” he said, but “federal bureaucrats in Washington shouldn’t be telling state officials what they can and can’t do.”
