It was refreshing to hear U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran say that if Congress were to approve an overhaul of U.S. infrastructure that he would expect the country to pay for the upgrades, rather than add it to our list of IOUs. Moran suggested a motor fuels tax as a funding mechanism.
In talking with Monarch Cement officials Tuesday, Moran had a captive audience. Such an agenda, after all, would directly impact their bottom line.
Moran noted that though President Trump’s campaign put improving U.S. roads and bridges high on his agenda, no “concrete plans” exist. As to whether the administration would support a fuels tax to help pay for improvements, Moran said Congress had been receiving “mixed messages.”
Imagine that.
This is where Congress should take the fall for the president and insist on increasing the fuels tax.
“I can’t think of a better way to fund new roads than by how much fuel you use,” Moran said, adding he wished it had been part of the recently passed tax reform.
Because the new tax cuts will require much belt-tightening everywhere else — including education, health care and infrastructure — additional funding will be required.
AS KANSANS know, good roads and bridges are vital to our livelihood. Yet, as a whole, the country’s infrastructure is being neglected. According to its most recent “report card,” the American Society of Civil Engineers gives U.S. infrastructure a D+ with an investment of $2 trillion needed to bring it up to a passing grade.
The Highway Trust Fund was designed to oversee maintenance of U.S. roads, bridges and mass transit and is funded primarily through taxes on gas and other fuels. Unfortunately, those cents-per-gallon rates have remained constant since 1993, despite the fact that costs have dramatically risen. Today, the federal motor fuels tax is 18.3 cents per gallon. If inflation were taken into account, that tax would now be almost 32 cents.
So how does Congress reconcile? It cuts spending. In the October stopgap budget resolution, Congress called for cutting the transportation budget by 33 percent, or $190 billion, over the next 10 years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
That sure doesn’t sound like maintaining, much less building for the future.
BECAUSE states and local governments are responsible for three-fourths of public infrastructure spending, Kansas needs to up its ante.
It’s been since 1989 that any significant motor fuels tax rate increase has occurred, going from 11 cents to 15 cents a gallon. It took another 10 years to increase a nickel. And then penny increases occurred from 2002 to 2004. For 14 years, we’ve been stuck at 24 cents a gallon.
Kansas lags behind the national average in motor fuels taxes. Our combined local, state and federal taxes average 42 cents, compared to the national average of 52 cents. That’s money our cities and counties sorely need to keep their roads and bridges safe.
Raising this specific tax is not throwing money into the unknown fathoms of “big government,” of which so many are wary.
Ideally, that is.
Of course in Kansas the caveat has been an administration that has robbed its department of transportation to fund general expenditures.
But that’s another story.
— Susan Lynn
