Ron Utt of the Heritage Foundation uses 2009 data to show that more than half the states send more gas taxes to the Treasury than they get back in federal transportation dollars. But the GAO uses 2005 through 2009 data to argue that, in fact, all the states have gotten back more than their residents paid in gas taxes.

It is likely that both are correct. Particularly in 2007 and 2008, the federal government spent more on surface transportation than it took in. If you spend more than you receive, then all everybody wins–except whoever has to eventually make up the difference.

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The House of Representatives agreed to extend reauthorization for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for four months and for surface transportation for six months. That’s not as long as the two years the Senate wanted for surface transportation, but apparently House Republicans weren’t ready to give up the gas tax (which would otherwise have expired at the end of this month) as a bargaining chip for a more sensible reauthorization bill.

Reauthorization of the FAA has foundered on the essential air service program which subsidizes commercial airline service to about 100 rural communities in the lower 48 states and another 45 communities in Alaska. This subsidy cost about $170 million in 2010, some $12 million of which went to the Alaska airports.

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While the Antiplanner was in Montana, President Obama asked Congress to pass a “clean extension” of the surface transportation laws. By this, he meant that Congress should continue spending money like a drunken sailor the way it has been spending it for the past several years (more specifically, spending it faster than it has been coming in).

But what he meant is not what he said. Instead–apparently aiming at the actual reauthorization–he argued that, “We need to stop funding projects based on whose districts they’re in and start funding them based on how much good they’re going to be doing for the American people.” There are a couple of problems with this. First, it wouldn’t happen with a “clean extension” of the transportation bill, which doesn’t do this.

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The Antiplanner has written several recent posts about Congressional reauthorization of transportation spending. But an even more imminent transportation reauthorization deadline is coming up: that for transportation revenue in the form of gas taxes. The law allowing such taxes is due to expire on September 30.

Recalcitrant Republicans held airline ticket taxes hostage for several weeks over subsidies to a baker’s dozen out-of-the-way airports. They let the debate over raising the debt limit go down to the wire. What’s to prevent them from refusing to reauthorize the federal gas tax?

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Continue spending money at current levels that are far greater than revenues. Drain the Highway Trust Fund. Make a few token changes in the law to make it look like you are doing something. Then revisit all the issues in just two years because you are too chicken to make the hard decisions today.

That’s pretty much the outline of a transportation reauthorization presented by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee late last week. Really, this plan is just like the one the committee presented last May, except the new one would expire in just two years instead of the usual six.

Ironically titled, “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century” or MAP-21–since it only moves ahead two years and makes no progress on the debates over funding sources and spending restraints–the plan exists only as a three-page outline, not the thousands of pages that would make up an actual bill.

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In recent months, the Antiplanner has wondered if Representative John Mica, chair of the House Transportation Committee, would act as a true fiscal conservative or revert to his old ways of pork barreling for his state and district. The reauthorization proposal he made last week provides one answer; another can be found in his response to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which had criticized Mica’s plan for reducing spending by 35 percent.

The letter castigates the Chamber for demanding higher taxes and more spending. Mica specifically notes that the Democrat’s proposal for reauthorization would have required a huge increase in gas taxes yet reduced highway construction, stymied public-private partnerships, and created numerous new programs that would have diverted even more money away from meeting highway needs. “Despite these flaws,” says Mica, “your organization enthusiastically encouraged support for the legislation.”

Mica notes that, at one time, the Chamber “would advocate strong infrastructure and responsible fiscal policy,” whereas now its main goal “appears to be to lead the lobby for tax increases.” “It is unfortunate that the leadership of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce still does not recognize that the American people have rejected excessive deficit spending and tax increases.”

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Fiscal austerity is the theme of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica’s long-awaited proposal for reauthorizing federal surface transportation funding, which he released Thursday. Unlike the 2005 reauthorization and President Obama’s proposed reauthorization, Mica’s proposal, which is supported by other Republican subcommittee chairs but has been blasted by Democrats, calls for spending no more than revenues.

That means a bill that is less than half as large as Obama’s proposal, and about 30 percent smaller (in real dollars) than the 2005 bill. Gas tax revenues and other federal highway user fees (mainly a tax on truck tires) total about $35 billion a year, which over six years with inflation is expected to produce about $230 billion. This is well short of the $480 billion that Obama wanted to spend and also a painful drop from the $50 billion a year spent by the 2005 law. Mica blamed the shortfall on new House rules that says Congress can’t spend more than revenues.

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