Tag: Highway Trust Fund: Page 41

Roadbuilding

Bye Jim; Hi John

I’m not surprised John Mica will become chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, but like most of you I am surprised that Jim Oberstar will not even be in the House. The turnaround adds more uncertainty to the existing uncertainty about reauthorization. Mica as ranking member of the committee and Oberstar as chairman […]

November 3, 2010

Roadbuilding

The Kansas Crunch

I keep coming across scenarios that worry me because they could be the tips of icebergs. As funding for transportation projects at all government levels become harder to find and even harder to predict, more and more important projects have to line up for whatever is available. Some must inevitably miss out. Sometimes there are processes […]

November 2, 2010

Roadbuilding

Bridge Collapses in Minnesota II

This is one of those stories I have to be careful with. The basic story is that a milling machine toppled partly into water when a section of the river bridge it was working on collapsed.It is not the I-35W story again, and it is not blogged here as a sensational story. If anything the […]

October 20, 2010

Roadbuilding

Lattatudes

Tossing ideas around may sound like time wasting, but running a number of possibilities through discussions can help us when decisions are actually needed.

October 1, 2010

Roadbuilding

Financial District

Transportation stakeholders expecting a comprehensive bill anytime soon could be disappointed, and it is worth recalling what President Ronald Reagan, originally an opponent of a higher gas tax, said in a radio Address to the Nation on proposed legislation for a highway and bridge repair program on November 27, 1982. It fits today’s situation like a glove.

October 1, 2010

Roadbuilding

We’ll drive further per gallon – but on what?

So you know this story by heart. It goes like this: The Highway Trust Fund relies primarily on income from fuel taxes. Its hopelessly short of funds because the gas tax is too low and politicians won’t raise it. And of course the fuel tax is becoming less and less efficient as we drive more […]

September 8, 2010

Roadbuilding

Financial District

Did your state ‘donate” (give more in fuel and other highway user taxes and fees) to Washington than it got back, or did you state get back more than it gave? PLUS –We decry the decrepit state of our “crumbling” infrastructure, but we have yet to adopt legal rules needed to provide for its ongoing maintenance and repair.

September 1, 2010

Roadbuilding

Financial District

Did your state ‘donate” (give more in fuel and other highway user taxes and fees) to Washington than it got back, or did you state get back more than it gave? PLUS –We decry the decrepit state of our “crumbling” infrastructure, but we have yet to adopt legal rules needed to provide for its ongoing maintenance and repair.

September 1, 2010

Roadbuilding

Financial District

Did your state ‘donate” (give more in fuel and other highway user taxes and fees) to Washington than it got back, or did you state get back more than it gave? PLUS –We decry the decrepit state of our “crumbling” infrastructure, but we have yet to adopt legal rules needed to provide for its ongoing maintenance and repair.

September 1, 2010

Roadbuilding

Lattatudes

Members of Congress, or least the vast majority of them, won’t consider a higher fuel tax to fund a new surface transportation bill. Without it, any bill would be inadequate.

September 1, 2010

Roadbuilding

We’re moving towards more tolling

Itr’s possible that the (voting) public is begining to see what happens when there is too little money for highways and bridges. But the process moves like molasses in winter. Last week the Wall Street Journal picked up the movement in some states to pro-actively turn badly deteriorating asphalt and concrete roads back to gravel roads. […]

August 4, 2010

Home

House passes second spending bill for fiscal 2011

The House of Representatives passed the second fiscal 2011spending bill on July 29, mostly along party lines, according to a National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) Washington Watch & eDigest report. With a vote of 251-167, legislators went ahead with H.R. 5850, a $67.7 billion measure to fund transportation, and housing and urban development […]

August 4, 2010