AASHTO Journal, 28 February 2014
During an address Thursday to state transportation department CEOs and other transportation-focused attendees, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx praised a plan announced Wednesday by President Obama that calls for a four-year, $302 billion transportation infrastructure measure, while also recognizing the need to provide funding certainty for state transportation departments. Foxx’s speech took place during AASHTO’s Washington Briefing, which also included keynote addresses from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
“I had a good conversation with AASHTO CEOs this morning,” Foxx said. “What’s at stake in the coming months? You all know that projects can’t get done over a cloud of uncertainty. Over the last several years, that’s what you’ve been working with. It’s a challenge for project sponsors to make long-term plans when Washington is giving you short-term solutions. I’m hearing from states that as this Highway Trust Fund crisis looms, around the middle part of the summer you’ll have to start making decisions on contracts, and you won’t know if the funding will be in place.”
Foxx said the President’s plan would help states make the transportation investments they need to keep the nation moving.
“Essentially, the concept of the use of business taxes would create a one-time revenue stream that can be used over a four-year period for infrastructure investment,” Foxx said, noting that the plan accounts for an additional $150 billion — $63 billion to shore up the Highway Trust Fund and nearly $90 billion for additional investment around the country. “After having a two-year bill, which is expiring and without having certainty for a new bill, this is a pretty big deal.”
Additional information on the President’s plan will be revealed upon the release of his budget, scheduled for March 4, Foxx said. Foxx also touched on a transportation funding solution proposed by House Ways and Means Chair Dave Camp (R-WI) in his tax reform package that includes more than $126 billion for the Highway Trust Fund, made possible through business taxes. And while he said he hasn’t yet read all the details of Camp’s plan, he believes that Camp and the administration are “talking in the same zip code.”
Still, no plan has yet been passed, leaving the future of the HTF and transportation funding uncertain. Foxx said he knows that means state DOTs will see effects of this long before most.
“We’ve gotten really close to the HTF reaching insolvency,” Foxx said. “We expect to slow down payments and in some cases that has resulted in contracts not being renewed and projects not starting, even when you get funding, from a planning standpoint. Our point of insolvency may be August or September, but your point of decision making will be before that. We recognize that, and we’re ringing the bell that says this problem needs solving.”
A video of Foxx’s full remarks is available on AASHTO’s Transportation TV . Additional information on both Obama and Camp’s transportation funding plans is available in additional AASHTO Journal coverage here.