Joshua Schank President and CEO Eno Center for Transportation Congress: Gridlocking Towards Glory or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love General Fund Revenues

Presentation Outline Policy Outlook Current Funding Outlook Potential Future Options What can be done about it?

Policy Outlook

Columbia and the ADA

Pre-MAP 21 System No Performance Measures or Accountability Inadequate Resources Modal SilosDonor/Donee

Spending Under SAFETEA-LU

End of an Era?

Congress Taking What They Can

Current Funding Outlook

Jonah and the Clock

No Progress on Long-Term Funding Source: AASHTO

Potential Future Options

Max’s Solution

Under Consideration General Funds Default policy Most likely outcome Used by virtually every other developed nation Gas Tax or Similar Still strongly under consideration Could move to sales tax or wholesale tax VMT Fee Unlikely to come from feds Could have potential at state or regional level

Funding Tradeoffs Highway Trust Fund General Funds No modal battles Fewer geographic battles Not tied to gas tax Dedicated Contract authority

What can be done about it?

Congress: Ready to Go

Conclusions Current system fails to provide long-term sustainable funding There is no evidence that Congress can tackle this problem by increasing user fees Congress’ default position has already improved things A conscious move to general funds could effectively improve performance, reduce modal siloes, and provide sustainable funding

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