The Bellingham Herald
POSTED: Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011
UPDATED: Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011
By GABRIEL ROTH
When Congress returns to Washington after New Year, its unfinished business will include a proposed new highway bill, which threatens to jettison a long-standing financing principle - user pays - for a politically more-expedient principle: taxpayer pays.
The old funding principle has served the country well. For example, when Congress established the Highway Trust Fund in 1956 to finance the Interstate Highway System it insisted that only monies paid into the fund by road users could be appropriated to meet its objectives.
The new principle, on the other hand, is what has brought the United States to the brink of insolvency: Spend what you want and if the usual funding sources aren't sufficient - in this case the fuel taxes that replenish the trust fund - dip into general revenues to make up the difference.
This would allow Congress to spend freely on transportation without having to vote for tax increases to provide the required revenues... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Wed, December 28, 2011
by John Cox