Chao: Administration Still Figuring Out Funding for Infrastructure Plan

[kscarbel2]

Transport Topics  /  June 15, 2017

The Trump administration has yet to agree on how to fund a portion of a $1 trillion, 10-year infrastructure plan expected to be unveiled this fall, the country’s top transportation officer told House funding leaders on June 15, a week after the White House hosted infrastructure-centric events around the country.

“At this point, suffice it to say nothing is off the table,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee members, who for the most part sounded skeptical about the administration’s promise of modernizing the country’s infrastructure primarily with private capital.

To those skeptical lawmakers, Chao defended the White House’s emphasis on private dollars, ensuring that creative forms of public-private partnerships, as well as funding dedicated for rural projects would be included in a final infrastructure proposal.

The administration offered in a vague outline tucked in a fiscal 2018 budget request providing $200 billion in federal spending as a way of incentivizing $800 billion in private investments for large-scale projects. Trump’s infrastructure plan said that restrictions on tolling interstate highways impedes public and private investment in such facilities.

“Some of the money would come from the sale of public assets and the remainder will be a combination of partnerships and cooperations between public and private sector, and through leveraging up the use of federal dollars,” Chao explained, as several Democrats pushed back on the plan.

The funding leaders, led by Democrats, also took issue with the administration’s intention to eliminate funding for Obama-era infrastructure grants, which have been used to boost rural, freight, and transit projects since 2009. Chao explained the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program would be rolled into another funding system at the U.S. DOT under the administration’s fiscal 2018 funding proposal.

Key lawmakers pointed out President Donald Trump had pledged to have a funding plan for infrastructure projects during his first 100 days in office. They shot down the notion private funding would address massive funding backlogs for bridges, tunnels, airports and other programs.

Representatives from rural districts claim if the White House relies on tolls to generate capital for projects, their roadways would not be ideal.

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[kscarbel2]

Chao says no infrastructure bill before tax reform

Neil Abt, Fleet Owner  /  October 23, 2017

DOT secretary tells truckers their voices are being heard

ORLANDO. No one should expect action on President Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure proposal until after Congress completes work on tax reform.

That was the message delivered by Elaine Chao, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), during a speech at the 2017 American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition.

Tax reform “is the focus of the Congress and the administration right now,” she said.

Chao said the general plan includes $200 billion in federal funding, with the rest made up of private investment and other methods.

Chao said 16 federal agencies were involved in crafting the proposal, and that she had met numerous times with trucking industry officials.

“Your voices are being heard,” she told MC&E attendees.

She also said DOT was continuing to look at regulatory reforms that could help speed up construction projects and create more jobs.

Chao said she is working with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on addressing the shortage of truck drivers. That could include further outreach to veterans, as well as to “underserved communities and women, she said.

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[kscarbel2]

Trump’s Economic Adviser Floats Idea of Gas Tax Hike for Infrastructure

Transport Topics  /  October 25, 2017

President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser raised the possibility of increasing the federal gasoline tax next year to help pay for the administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, U.S. Representative Tom Reed said.

National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn brought up the fuel tax as a way to help fund promised upgrades to U.S. roads, bridges and other public works during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers dubbed the Problem Solvers Caucus on Wednesday, said Reed, a New York Republican who is co-chairman of the caucus.

There have been proposals over the years to raise the gas tax, which hasn’t been increased since 1993, but they have faced stiff opposition from congressional Republicans and others loath to raise taxes.

As recently as May 1, after Trump floated the idea in an interview with Bloomberg News, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady seemed cold to the idea. Asked then if he’d rule it out, he said, “In my view, yes, but we’re going to have that discussion.”

On Oct. 25, Brady was no more enthusiastic. “Hm. I’m going to stay focused on tax reform right now,” he said.

Revenue from the federal per-gallon taxes of 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel has declined as inflation robbed them of their purchasing power and the average fuel economy of a passenger vehicle increased by 12%, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Business and transportation groups have called for increasing the federal gas tax to help sustain the federal Highway Trust Fund that provides money to states for projects.

Representative Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho, said he would support an increase.

“It’s a user fee,” Simpson said. “We’ve got to convince people that the money goes to roads and bridges and not all the other bull.”

In the Bloomberg News interview, Trump said he “would certainly consider” raising the U.S. gas tax to fund the infrastructure improvements he promised during the campaign. He described the idea as supported by truckers “if we earmarked money toward the highways.’’ But the White House quickly said the president wasn’t endorsing the idea.

The White House didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on Cohn’s remarks. The administration has said it plans to pursue an infrastructure package after ongoing efforts to overhaul the U.S. tax code are resolved.

[Red Horse]

On 10/26/2017 at 9:43 AM, kscarbel2 said:

Trump’s Economic Adviser Floats Idea of Gas Tax Hike for Infrastructure

 

Transport Topics  /  October 25, 2017

President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser raised the possibility of increasing the federal gasoline tax next year to help pay for the administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, U.S. Representative Tom Reed said.

 

National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn brought up the fuel tax as a way to help fund promised upgrades to U.S. roads, bridges and other public works during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers dubbed the Problem Solvers Caucus on Wednesday, said Reed, a New York Republican who is co-chairman of the caucus.

 

There have been proposals over the years to raise the gas tax, which hasn’t been increased since 1993, but they have faced stiff opposition from congressional Republicans and others loath to raise taxes.

 

As recently as May 1, after Trump floated the idea in an interview with Bloomberg News, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady seemed cold to the idea. Asked then if he’d rule it out, he said, “In my view, yes, but we’re going to have that discussion.”

 

On Oct. 25, Brady was no more enthusiastic. “Hm. I’m going to stay focused on tax reform right now,” he said.

 

Revenue from the federal per-gallon taxes of 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel has declined as inflation robbed them of their purchasing power and the average fuel economy of a passenger vehicle increased by 12%, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Business and transportation groups have called for increasing the federal gas tax to help sustain the federal Highway Trust Fund that provides money to states for projects.

 

Representative Mike Simpson, a Republican from Idaho, said he would support an increase.

 

“It’s a user fee,” Simpson said. “We’ve got to convince people that the money goes to roads and bridges and not all the other bull.”

 

In the Bloomberg News interview, Trump said he “would certainly consider” raising the U.S. gas tax to fund the infrastructure improvements he promised during the campaign. He described the idea as supported by truckers “if we earmarked money toward the highways.’’ But the White House quickly said the president wasn’t endorsing the idea.

 

The White House didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on Cohn’s remarks. The administration has said it plans to pursue an infrastructure package after ongoing efforts to overhaul the U.S. tax code are resolved.

 

Seems to me the "gas tax" is the fairest way to pay for this-assuming "transportation" expenditures are highways.   A true progressive tax.  What I always wondered was, why did the feds not key something to fuel prices when we were geared to paying outrageous fuel prices.   

That IMO would have been the time to gear any tax increase to any reduction from some benchmark energy cost.  Let's say the weighted price of diesel /gas was for example $3.00.  Bottom line, people might not have liked it, but they were used to living with it.  So let's say for reduction in that fuel price a percentage of that decrease could have been applied to an increase in fed fuel tax.  this adjustment could be made on a quarterly basis.

Just a thought.  All the politicians talk about the need for highway infrastructure improvements but they are always silent on how they are funded.

[41chevy]

The other side of the coin is, how much has been "borrowed" from it (like Social Security) and never payed back?

[kscarbel2]

 

[41chevy]

Schummer wanted to know why the rural areas need infrastructure up grades when they have no where to go.  Moron

[kscarbel2]

Trump Supports 25-Cent Fuel Tax Increase to Fund Infrastructure

Bloomberg  /  February 14, 2018

President Donald Trump told lawmakers he would support a 25-cent-per-gallon increase in federal gasoline and diesel taxes to help pay for upgrading American roads, bridges and other public works, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware said Feb. 14.

Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he was surprised that Trump raised the idea of the fuel tax increase several times during a meeting with a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers from key House and Senate committees.

“While there are a number of issues on which President Trump and I disagree, today, we agreed that things worth having are worth paying for,” Carper said in a statement. “The president even offered to help provide the leadership necessary so that we could do something that has proven difficult in the past.”

Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who also attended the meeting, said the president told lawmakers he also would be willing to increase the amount of federal spending beyond the $200 billion over 10 years that the administration is seeking for its infrastructure program.

Trump previously has said he would consider raising the federal gasoline tax, which hasn’t been increased since 1993. Axios reported earlier that Trump endorsed a 25-cent increase during the meeting.

White House officials declined to comment on Trump’s discussions in the closed-door meeting but said that all options were on the table to meet the main objectives of the president’s plan.

"The president made a living building things, and he realizes that to build things takes money, takes investment,” DeFazio said.

Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has encouraged his Republican colleagues to consider raising the gas tax as a way to keep the Highway Trust Fund — which finances road, bridge and transit projects — solvent after 2021. He said there was discussion during the meeting about funding.

“He understands that we’ve got to figure out the funding levels and where the money’s coming from, make sure it’s not smoke and mirrors,” Shuster said of the president.

Groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Trucking Associations support the idea of increasing the gas tax as the most efficient and easiest way to generate more money for projects, and the White House has been neutral.

“We support the president’s big and bold vision for strengthening American infrastructure," said ATA President Chris Spear. "Because it is a user fee, the fuel tax is the most conservative, cost-effective and viable solution to making that vision a reality. Ninety-nine cents of every dollar goes directly to road and bridge maintenance, and it doesn’t add a penny to the deficit. There’s a reason why Ronald Reagan twice signed this idea into law.”

But key Republican leaders have already rejected the idea and other entities, including the political network led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, are also opposed. Some critics say the tax is regressive because lower-income people pay a larger share of their income on the levy.

Revenue from the federal per-gallon taxes of 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel has declined as the average fuel economy of a passenger vehicle increased.

Trump’s infrastructure plan seeks to revamp how projects are approved and funded by reducing permitting time to two years and allocating $200 billion over 10 years — mostly as incentives to spur states, localities and the private sector to spend at least $1.3 trillion. The administration released its 53-page plan Feb. 12 as a blueprint for Congress to draft legislation.

[41chevy]

Fed tax goes up, states follow and for a lot of people his tax cuts will almost (but not quite) pay the Federal and State Fuel tax increases. My increases commercially will be added to the job costs as all other companies will do. Will electrics will get a free ride,  Government vehicles, Transit buses and school buses all be exempt from paying the tax or will property and school taxes increase to cover the added tax?

I'd also like to see exactly where all the current fuel tax monies go, doubt it is even 50 cents on the dollar.

Edited February 15, 2018 by 41chevy

[kscarbel2]

Now Paul, you know that "the people" have no right to know where their money is [actually] going.