No: Feds have mishandled gas-tax revenues, mistreated Georgia.
Envision a mafialike scheme. The federal government shows up uninvited and says, “Hey Georgia, ya gotta keep your highways in good shape, but since we’re lookin’ out for ya, we’re gonna hold onto your highway money until it’s time to spend it, understand?”
When the time comes to start projects, the federal government hands Georgia an envelope of cash, but it seems a little thin. The feds explain that they’re actually looking out for a lot of friends and need to keep some of Georgia’s cash to “reward some people and make sure everyone has some nice things, so fugetaboutit.”
As absurd as it sounds, that’s exactly what happens to Georgia because of the Highway Trust Fund. Over fiscal 2005-09, Georgians lost $839 million of our gas-tax revenue, receiving back just 89 percent of what we put into the fund. The rest was doled out by the federal government for projects in other states.
Since the fund’s inception in 1956, Georgia’s average return on dollars invested has been 84.8 percent. Nicer folks call us a “donor state.” I say the feds have gotten away with highway robbery.
Fifty-five years ago, President Dwight Eisenhower worked with Congress to create the Highway Trust Fund to construct our interstate highway system. The original plan called for a 16-year gas tax of 3 cents per gallon in order to pay for the entire project. The tax was to drop to 1.5 cents per gallon in 1972.
Well, the gas tax never declined, and instead was raised and extended many times until reaching the 18.4 cents per gallon tax we know today. It’s reasonable to expect such an enormous, nationwide plan to require extra time and funding, but after so many years, I think most would agree that the interstate highway system is complete and the central government’s job is done. Clearly, we need steady funding to maintain and expand our highways, but are federal bureaucrats the right people to manage that money?
I believe the federal government has mishandled our gas-tax revenues and mistreated states such as Georgia, and it’s not hard to understand why. A big pile of money in Washington is like flypaper for political agendas, lobbyists, special interests and earmarks. The Highway Trust Fund is no exception, and it’s being drained for projects that have absolutely nothing to do with highways.
One example of misuse is how a troika of Big Government all-stars — the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — have teamed up to advance something called the Livability Initiative.
Essentially, they’ve decided your neighborhood needs some touching up, so they’ve started taking money from highways and giving it to smaller local projects such as bike paths, sidewalks, scenic byways and decorative flower arrangements for medians. But the livability plan is small potatoes compared to the many rail programs, commuter-transit projects, bridges to nowhere and administrative costs that soak up our highway dollars.
According to the Heritage Foundation, about 38 percent of our highway funding went to nonhighway projects in fiscal 2009.
With Washington currently overwhelmed by so many of its own mistakes, highway funding is one issue that can and should be handed back to the states.
One mechanism to accomplish that is the Transportation Empowerment Act [S. 1164], which would empower states to control their own highway programs and strictly limit federal involvement to projects that have a national purpose. Over a five-year transition period, the federal gas tax would drop to 3.7 cents per gallon, which would allow states to adjust their own gas tax rates and keep nearly all of the resulting revenue.
For Georgia, a plan like this means more funding, flexibility and authority to do what’s best for us, and freedom from federal mandates.
Congressman Tom Graves. R-Ga., represents the 9th District.
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