Transport Group Buys HTF Advocacy Ads

DALLAS -- A coalition of transportation advocacy group led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will place ads in billboards and publications across the nation urging Congress to develop a long-term funding source for the federal Highway Trust Fund.

The Better, Faster, Safer campaign by Americans for Transportation Mobility will place ads in regional print publications in 10 media markets covering 33 congressional districts as well as national digital networks. The effort also includes billboards in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Kansas City.

The coalition's ads will push voters to press their representatives and senators for a long-term solution that will provide adequate and sustainable revenues to the highway fund that hovers continually on the brink of bankruptcy.

The campaign's message is that the $10.8 billion, 10-month HTF patch that Congress passed this summer did not resolve the structural imbalance in the fund, the source for almost all federal highway and transit infrastructure spending. Outlays from the fund totaled $53 billion in fiscal 2014 but revenues from federal gasoline and diesel taxes amounted to barely $38 billion.

The ad campaign will emphasize the economic importance of transportation infrastructure systems and how they are falling behind, said Janet Kavinoky, vice president of Americans for Transportation Mobility and the Chamber's executive director for transportation and infrastructure.

"We are jeopardizing the roads, bridges, and transit systems that have helped this country grow and prosper," she said.

Congress has bolstered the HTF with $64 billion of general fund and other revenues since 2008, but the highway fund remain remains $15 billion a year or more in the red, she said.

Lawmakers should act quickly to find a bipartisan, sustainable, and long-term solution funding solution without waiting until the current short-term spending fix expires May 31, Kavinoky said.

"Congress passed legislation in late July that will keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent until May of next year, but America needs—and deserves—better," she said.

"America needs faster commutes, better solutions, and safer travel," Kavinoky said. "We need Congress to finish the job and act sooner rather than later to ensure the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund for years to come."

The ad campaign does not back any specific new funding sources, but Kavinoky told a Sept. 25 meeting of the North Houston Association and Transportation Advocacy Group that the most realistic way to generate additional revenues over the near term is an increase in the federal gasoline tax. The current gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and diesel tax of 24.4 cents have not been increased in 21 years, she said.

"We should increase the federal gas and diesel taxes and index them to inflation," Kavinoky said. "Then we need to start looking at what we're going to do down the road as cars continue to become more fuel efficient."

The most likely approach to raising the gasoline tax is to include it in a larger Senate tax bill that is agreeable to the House, she said.

The ads and billboards will urge voters to contact their congressional delegation in favor of more sustainable highway funding, Kavinoky said in asking the Texans to do the same thing. Persistence will pay off, she said.

"We need members of Congress to come back from the election, go to the leadership and say 'I heard about transportation when I was at home. They're beating me up on fixing the Highway Trust Fund. They won't leave me alone on the Highway Trust Fund,' " Kavinoky said.

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