The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) will be pushing for a minimum $50 billion per year federal investment in highway, bridge and transit programs as part of congressional reauthorization of the federal surface transportation programs in 2003.

The association’s preliminary goals for the reauthorization legislation were finalized by the group’s Board of Directors at a March 30 meeting in Washington, D.C., capping an 18-month task force project.

The ARTBA federal highway investment minimum target is based on data in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 1999 report to Congress on the condition and investment needs of the nation’s surface transportation system.

The report makes clear that a $50 billion annual federal investment is necessary just to maintain current highway and bridge conditions and system performance, ARTBA said, when its data are adjusted to reflect anticipated increases in inflation and traffic growth.

ARTBA points out that there will likely be a $17 billion per year funding gap between anticipated federal highway investment in FY 2003, the last year authorized by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), and the $50 billion investment needed.

Actually making significant conditions and performance improvements would require more than a $50 billion federal program, the U.S. DOT data suggest.

In fact, the agency report shows cost-benefit analysis would support a $65 billion per year federal highway improvement investment, ARTBA says.

"The Federal-aid Highway Program should no longer be viewed by the Congress, the Executive Branch, the media and the public as ’just a construction program,’" the ARTBA plan says. "It is rightly put in a larger context. Today, its successes – and shortcomings – impact virtually every aspect of American business and quality of life."

The ARTBA plan urges the Congress and the Bush Administration to consider a combination of at least six revenue options to meet the minimum $50 billion per year investment target:

• Annually drawing down on the estimated $27 billion 2003 balance in the Highway Trust Fund-would provide an additional $5 billion per year. (At its current revenue growth rate, the Highway Trust Fund balance can be expected to balloon to almost $45 billion by FY 2009 absent an increase in post TEA-21 authorizations.);

• Increasing federal highway user fees-each one cent per gallon increase in the federal motor fuels excise would generate $2 billion per year to the HTF;

• Fostering tax-exempt financing for transportation capital projects and the implementation of innovative financing mechanisms like State Infrastructure Banks (SIBs), the proposed Transportation Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Act (TIFIA) and regional transportation compacts to leverage funds;

• Eliminating federal motor fuels user fee evasion-would provide an additional $1.8 billion per year to the HTF;

• Eliminating the federal tax subsidy on ethanol-based motor fuels sales-would generate an additional $1.1 billion annually for the HTF; and

• Indexing the federal motor fuels tax to the Consumer Price Index (CPI)-would generate an estimated additional $900 million per year to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF).

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