Broad Coalition Backs Higher Federal Gasoline Tax

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DALLAS — A coalition of labor leaders and business executives on Wednesday threw their support behind a proposal by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., to raise the federal gasoline tax by 15 cents per gallon to fund surface transportation infrastructure.

The bill, H.R. 3636, would be implemented over three years to bring the federal tax on a gallon of gasoline to 33.4 cents from the current 18.4 cents.

Backing the proposal at a press conference on Capitol Hill were representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Laborers’ International Union of North America, American Public Transportation Association, and several engineering and transportation interest groups.

The additional revenue generated through the increased tax is needed to keep the rapidly depleting Highway Trust Fund solvent into fiscal 2015 and beyond, Blumenauer said.

“Every credible independent report indicates that we are not meeting the demands of our stressed and decaying infrastructure system — roads, bridges and transit,” said Blumenauer.  “Congress hasn’t dealt seriously with the funding issue for 20 years and it’s time to act.”

The tax proposal is called the UPDATE Act, Blumenauer said, for Update, Promote, and Develop America’s Transportation Essentials Act.

The Highway Trust Fund needs almost $15 billion a year of new revenue to keep pace with current federal highway funding, he said. The higher fuel tax being proposed would generate $170 billion over 10 years.

“Addressing the infrastructure deficit, stabilizing transportation funding, and helping America’s all-too-slow economic recovery is critical if we want a livable and economically prosperous country in the years to come,” Blumenauer said.

More robust funding for vital infrastructure can be a bipartisan issue despite the divided Congress, he said, citing the water infrastructure bill that recently passed both chambers with large margins and is now being considered by a conference committee.

“Instituting a reasonable gas tax increase now provides the revenues Democrats say they want with a form of a user fee which historically has been acceptable to Republicans including [the late President] Ronald Reagan, who increased the gas tax by a nickel a gallon in 1982,” Blumenauer said.

Without the additional gasoline tax revenue, he said, federal transportation funding would drop by 30% by over the next 10 years.

Patrick Natale, executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers, said Blumenauer’s proposal would ensure the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.

“This bill represents a major step forward in addressing how to fix America’s surface transportation infrastructure,” Natale said at the press conference.

Surface transportation in the U.S. will require $2 trillion of investment for the nation to remain economically competitive, he said.

Blumenauer also introduced H.R. 3638, which would authorize a pilot program to study more sustainable replacements for the gasoline tax, including a road user fee system based on vehicle miles traveled, or VMT.

The gasoline tax increase is a quick fix for the next 10 years, he said, but the VMT fee system could extend the Highway Trust Fund for decades. He called it a “more stable funding base for the next 100 years.”

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