Time to reset the transportation funding equation

Route Fifty

By Evan Burgstahler

October 2, 2024

COMMENTARY | The way the nation funds our transportation network is broken. The solutions to fix it already exist. State and local governments just need to pick one.

A reinvention of our transportation funding framework is on the horizon, and state and local governments, which today provide nearly 75% of transportation funding, will play a critical role.

Transportation funding in the U.S. is facing an ever-growing imbalance between the needs of the nation’s road and bridge network and the funds available to satisfy them. While the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided more than $110 billion in new road and bridge spending, the truth is that it’s but another temporary patch on a growing problem. 

The need for change isn’t new—a 2009 report from the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Funding Commission concluded that a new funding system was imperative. Fifteen years later, however, our nation’s transportation funding remains in a structural deficit—one further under pressure as motor fuels tax receipts decline with an accelerating shift toward electric vehicles.

View the full article: Route-Fifty.com