States are taking or considering a diverse range of approaches to tackling billions of dollars of collective shortfalls for transportation funding over the coming years, according to a new report.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials reached this finding in an updated comprehensive report detailing state transportation needs and how states are considering funding them.
The report, released through AASHTO's Center for Excellence in Project Finance, details funding and financing proposals considered by 30 states since December. The center strives to provide a resource for state officials.
Many states are taking the traditional approach, AASHTO's data shows, seeking to supplement roads, bridges, and transit projects with taxes on gasoline. California has approved increasing the state gas tax by 3.5 cents per gallon and using that revenue as well as bonds to finance dozens of projects. Maryland also recently approved a gas tax increase, something that Gov. Martin O'Malley had sought to help supply roughly $800 million in new revenue to address current congestion problems.
Other states are using sales and wholesale tax increases and dedicating a portion of that revenue to transportation spending. This approach helps circumvent the problems of increasingly-fuel efficient cars that purchase less gas and wind up contributing less to road funding.
Virginia and Missouri both cut their per-gallon gasoline tax rates while imposing new wholesale taxes on fuel. Arkansas voters in November approved a proposition to increase the state sales tax from to 6.5% from 6%, and put the resulting revenue to use on nearly $2 billion of highway improvements in the coming decade.
Other states are looking more outside the box and seeking methods of highway finance that are still centered around drivers but are more closely tied to the actual amount of travel by their vehicles and less to the amount of fuel purchased. Florida, Arizona, and Oregon are all in various stages of exploring the use of vehicle-mileage fees, a sometimes-controversial but increasingly talked-about concept that would impose a tax on drivers based on the distance they have driven. Lawmakers at both the state and national levels have discussed the concept, which could work with car-mounted internal global positioning systems that could be read by gas pumps. That would ensure that drivers pay their fair share for the amount of public roadway they use, whether they drive gas-guzzlers or fuel-sipping hybrids, supporters say.
But others are concerned such a system would be extremely slow and expensive to implement, and could potentially represent a threat to the privacy of drivers whose travel data might be recorded.
Joung Lee, AASHTO's associate director for finance and business development, said it is important to keep transportation finance in the public eye as much as possible and that he is happy states have been able to take some local action to address their needs.
"It certainly is very encouraging," he said. "Folks have been getting more creative."
Lee said that despite some state-level success, it is crucial that Congress act soon to maintain federal transportation support beyond the expiration of the current law on Oct.1 next year.
"All the individual state actions still doesn't equate to having a strong federal program," said Lee.
