Road money dries up

Monday, Sept. 8, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

The federal fund that helps pay for highway and bridge projects throughout the country will be broke by the end of this month.

This embarrassing state of affairs was announced Friday by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who said the answer to replenishing the fund resides with Congress.

She was referring to legislation stalled in the Senate that would transfer $8 billion from the Treasury into the highway trust fund, which has been a stable source of road and bridge money since it was established during the Eisenhower administration.

There are two main reasons why it is depleted. The per-gallon federal gasoline and diesel taxes, mainstays of the fund, have not been increased since 1993. Also, Americans are responding to high fuel prices by driving far fewer miles.

The legislation drafted to bail out the highway fund was passed overwhelmingly in the House on July 23, even though the White House had intoned it would be “a dangerous precedent that shifts costs from users to taxpayers at large.”

At the time, we pointed out that “taxpayers at large” depend every day on state and federal highways for delivery of everything they want and need.

With the fund now destined to start the next federal fiscal year, which begins next month, with no money, already financially strapped states will find themselves in a bind. Most state highway projects depend on timely infusions of money from the highway trust fund.

Partly because the Senate’s highway relief measure is part of a bill that would extend tax credits to renewable energy entrepreneurs, Republicans are blocking it. Many also side with the White House’s ideological opposition.

With more fuel-efficient cars and trucks the wave of the future, Congress will ultimately have to find ways to offset the reductions in gasoline and diesel taxes. But for now, Congress and the White House should find a way to pass the emergency funds the country needs for critical road and bridge projects.