Over the next six years, the Obama administration proposes to spend $253 billion on highways; $119 billion on mass transit; $53 billion on “high-performance” passenger trains; $28 billion on “livability”; and $25 billion on an infrastructure bank. At least, those are the numbers that can be found in a copy of an undated bill representing the Obama administration’s proposal for reauthorizing federal surface transportation spending that was recently distributed by a publication called Transportation Weekly. The publication also released a section-by-section analysis of the bill.
Under the bill, total spending over the next six years (2012 through 2017) would be about $480 billion, which is roughly twice as much as the federal government expects to collect in gas taxes and other existing highway user fees. The bill makes several references to a “new energy tax” that might make up some of the difference.
Currently, almost all federal spending on surface transportation comes from federal taxes on motor fuel, heavy trucks and trailers, and truck tires. When Congress created the Interstate Highway System in 1956, it also created the Highway Trust Fund and dedicated these taxes to that fund. This fund sunsets every six years unless reauthorized, and each reauthorization gives Congress a chance to tinker with the fund.
