AASHTO Journal, 17 July 2015
The top project investment advocate for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has listed the new Transportation TV video on “Highway Trust Fund Crisis: Countdown to July 31” among recent standout reports to counter a wave of what she calls anti-trust fund “propaganda.”
Janet Kavinoky, the Chamber’s executive director – transportation and infrastructure as well as vice president of the Americans for Transportation Mobility Coalition, made her comments in a July 13 blog entry titled “Putting the Highway Trust Fund Fact Front and Center – Again.”
She criticized the “myth machine” for generating stories in some news outlets to make it appear that as states are increasing their own new revenue for infrastructure investments there is less need for the federal program to spend more on transportation projects.
But she said recent reports by TTV and Eno Transportation, plus an opinion article recently carried in a congressionally targeted publication and authored by the general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, help spread the facts.
The TTV special report on the latest trust fund crisis, she said, “does a terrific job of examining the crisis from the state perspective and communicating the urgent need to find a long-term solution.”
In it, TTV quotes various officials of AASHTO and state departments of transportation about the importance of a strong federal program to partner with states on infrastructure spending.
Kavinoky wrote: “It’s sometimes disheartening to see the myth machine at work and getting traction on its inaccuracies and fabrications – especially when Congress’ important work needs to be based entirely on the facts. But it’s comforting to at least know the facts are also getting some air time.”
Here is that TTV report: