Federal funding for road construction is running out and Congress faces a big fight over how to replenish it, Reuters reported.
The trucking industry, many state transportation directors and even a few lawmakers say the simple solution to shore up the Highway Trust Fund and avoid construction layoffs is to raise federal fuel taxes, unchanged since 1993, according to Reuters.
In a congressional election year in which both Democrats and Republicans are wary of voter backlash, nothing will most likely be done, Reuters reported.
"We have never proposed or a supported a gas tax," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Monday, according to Reuters.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner also opposes an increase in fuel taxes, an aide said, Reuters reported. Earlier this year, Boehner all but ruled out another transfer of general funds to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat.
If Congress can't agree on an alternative way to increase transportation money by late summer, or take the easier path of a short-term fund transfer, the consequences could be huge, halting or slowing work on thousands of projects, according to Reuters. This could idle hundreds of thousands of workers at a time when the economy is finally gaining some traction.
A funding crisis would affect the nearly 600 major projects under way in California at a cost of more than $11 billion, said Mark Dinger, spokesman for the state's Department of Transportation, Reuters reported.
"In surprisingly short order, the operations of the nation's largest transportation agency could grind to a halt," Dinger added, according to Reuters.
The central problem is that the existing per-gallon fuel taxes of 18.4 cents for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel are no longer producing enough revenue to fund road, bridge and tunnel projects, Reuters reported. Due to less driving amid a slow economic recovery and construction cost inflation.
The federal government provides about 45 percent of what states spend on road and bridge projects, according to Reuters. A related fund for mass transit projects is also running low.
