Tag: funding: Page 16

Roadbuilding

House Appropriations Committee releases $44.1 billion USDOT, HUD budget

[Correction: The original report stated that the proposed budget was $44 billion. This report now reflects the correct amount, $44.1 billion.] The House Appropriations Committee yesterday released a $44.1 billion budget for the departments of Transportation (USDOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). According to a release from the committee, the fiscal year 2014 Transportation, […]

June 19, 2013

Roadbuilding

Guest Blog: Electric vehicles are becoming a taxing problem

A recent article on CNN‘s website called attention to efforts by a handful of states to collect infrastructure revenues from electric vehicles (EVs), which operate without gasoline or diesel fuel and thus do not contribute to road and bridge budgets.         The article detailed how Washington State legislators passed a $100 annual flat tax on EVs […]

June 14, 2013

Roadbuilding

Private money: A funding wildcard in 2014

It’s hard to see a time in the foreseeable future where we will have a solid supply of funding from any single source to fill the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). That’s an asterisked statement of course because an increased gas tax could do it. But that won’t happen in the foreseeable future. And neither will […]

June 13, 2013

Roadbuilding

Gas Tax 101: 1932 – 2013

We talk gas tax all day long in this industry. We hear arguments that it should increase (I make many of them) or that it should remain where it is (largely because it would be political suicide to raise it). But this Forbes piece is a short, succinct summary of the Federal gas tax from […]

June 11, 2013

Business

Recent talks suggest Congress has put transportation funding on the back burner

After attending last week’s Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) fly-in visit with Congress, John Latta, the editor of our sister site Better Roads, writes that the overall feeling among the contractors and agency officials that were there is that lawmakers do not share their sense of urgency about securing funding for transportation infrastructure. “A common theme they heard […]

June 11, 2013

Roadbuilding

States combat low gas tax revenues with hybrid-, electric-vehicle fees

In an attempt to battle lost taxes due to increased hybrid and electric car use, six states are working to create laws to tax fuel-efficient vehicles, Automotive News and Bloomberg reported. Electric and hybrid car sales have continuously risen in the last decade, while state and local gas tax revenues have fallen. In fact, inflation-adjusted […]

June 10, 2013

Roadbuilding

Funding talks on The Hill lay groundwork for reauthorization

Debriefing a number of contractors and agency folk who spent most of the daylight hours yesterday talking to politicians on The Hill last night was not a very uplifting experience. They had gone to talk to members of Congress who are influential–some big-time, some not so–in funding transportation infrastructure. And most said they heard what […]

June 6, 2013

Business

Believe it or not, most Americans think good roads are more important than their iPhone or TV

To say the findings of a recent study reported on by our sister site Better Roads are a bit shocking is an understatement. Maybe the understatement of the year. Be honest. If you had access to a swath of the American population and could ask them what they value more than their iPhone or cable […]

June 5, 2013

Roadbuilding

Majority of Americans want tax dollars used for public transportation

Americans want to see increased funding for public transportation, according to survey data released this month from the American Public Transportation Association and the Mineta Transportation Institute. The results showed that 73.6 percent of respondents strongly supported use of taxes “for creating, expanding, and improving public transportation.” A year ago, 69 percent of respondents agreed. […]

June 4, 2013

Roadbuilding

LaHood encourages Great Lakes governors to push for five-year transportation bill

At a summit of the Council of Great Lakes Governors on Saturday, outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood encouraged governors in the Great Lakes area to increase transportation funding pressure on Congress, The Detroit News reported. LaHood urged the governors to push for a five-year transportation funding bill with new revenues. He said the bill […]

June 3, 2013

Roadbuilding

MAP-21’s reform timetable: Can it be maintained?

Ah, yes, the reforms of MAP-21. Like a breath of fresh air they were. Changes that would accelerate woefully slow project delivery times were finally coming, changes worth waiting for. With MAP-21, our current two-year surface transportation legislation, came lowered expectations from a lack of adequate funding but raised expectations from reforms in the act. […]

May 30, 2013

Business

U.S. infrastructure spending has plummeted in last 5 years

According to a report from our sister site Better Roads, infrastructure spending in the U.S. has plummeted in the last five years. Citing data that began in 2002, Better Roads reports that highway and road construction spending began a major decline in 2009. It should come to no surprise that the culprit is the country’s […]

May 30, 2013