Highway Trust Fund Declines by $3 Billion, DOT Says
The federal highway trust fund took in $3 billion less in fiscal year 2008, as Americans drove 90 billion miles fewer miles over an 11-month period compared with a year ago, the Department of Transportation said late Wednesday.
The trend “underscores the need to find a new way to finance transportation projects in America,” Transportation Secretary of Mary Peters said in a statement. “We need a new approach that compliments, instead of contradicts, our energy policies and infrastructure needs.”
The highway trust fund is the government’s main source for funding highway, bridge and transit projects. It is funded primarily through the federal fuel taxes of 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents a gallon on diesel.
DOT said Americans drove 4.4% less, or 10.7 billion fewer vehicle miles traveled, in September than the same month last year, the 11th straight month of lower VMT.
The trend is most evident in rural interstate travel, which fell by 8%, while urban interstate travel fell 3.9%, DOT said.
As a result of the continued decline in VMT, the fund, collected $31 billion in revenue between October 2007 and September 2008, amounting to $3 billion less than it collected the previous year, while federal transportation spending increased by $2 billion.
