Gas Tax

Washington transportation policymaking can often resemble an unwieldy soup of anywhere between 50 and 535 local perspectives, as lawmakers from different states and districts vie for a fixed (or even shrinking) amount of federal funding.

The myth that U.S. roads "pay for themselves" thanks to user fees is a subject that's likely familiar to many Streetsblog readers -- but just how much of the nation's highway funding is provided by charging drivers?

As Congress maneuvers to end the political impasse over the next long-term national transportation bill, lawmakers going to have to debate an increase in the federal gas tax, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today.

Seven months after first trying to re-brand congressional climate change legislation as an "energy tax," Senate Republicans were back at it today with a new report and op-ed that attempts to expose the climate bill as a "$3.6 trillion gas tax."

Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), the No. 2 Democratic leader in the upper chamber of Congress and a close ally of the president, broke with the White House yesterday and called for a new long-term transportation bill to pass by early next year -- not after the Obama administration's preferred 18-month delay.

As the Senate backs up the White House's push for an 18-month delay in approving a new federal infrastructure bill, one of its major arguments is that the economic stimulus law's $48 billion in transportation money would help tide the nation over until long-term legislation could be passed.

(Graphic: HTNB) The puzzle of how to pay for new federal investments in transportation is the single greatest stumbling block facing members of Congress — should a gas tax increase be combined with a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax? How about a national infrastructure bank that leverages private capital? A poll released today by the … Continued

The White House's commitment to electrified cars, fulfilling an Obama campaign promise to put 1 million plug-in hybrids into service by 2015, is bound to have serious ramifications for the nation's already-crumbling system of paying for transportation.

Having entertained legislators' own ideas about how best to fund future transportation spending, the House Ways and Means committee turned to representatives from the administration and key interest groups today to hear their thoughts on the matter.