State Grants Needed to Explore Future Transportation Funding Alternatives, Two Representatives Say

Two House Democrats have urged the Obama Administration to follow up passage of a long-term transportation funding law by initiating a grant program that will ensure that states have as much time as possible to test various future funding alternatives to the federal fuel tax.

“The FAST Act is a great achievement, but it does not resolve the long-term solvency challenges of the Highway Trust Fund,” said the letter sent to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx by Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, both ranking members of House transportation subcommittees. “To ensure that we are not in the same position four years from now, we must immediately begin to identify real, workable funding solutions to carry our surface transportation programs through the 21st century.”

The letter said that the Fast Act establishes the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives program, which provides up to $95 million to enable states to test and demonstrate innovative methods to fund infrastructure improvements.

The grants to states will permit user-based alternative revenue mechanisms that utilize a user fee structure to maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.

“We believe states are the laboratories of democracy, and the FAST Act provides the necessary funding to incentivize states to explore novel user-fee structures that provide sustainable transportation funding,” the letter said.