There are 3 main concepts for Congress to keep in mind about our national infrastructure: safety, mobility of goods & people and jobs.
These are concepts that everyone can get behind. So we all AGREE that we need to invest in our nation’s surface transportation infrastructure. Great.
How do we pay for it?
This is where there is a lot of DISAGREEMENT. Regardless, it is crucial that Congress pass an infrastructure bill as soon as possible.
Traditionally, the Highway Trust Fund, which collects the nation’s gas tax paid for the surface transportation program. But there is no longer enough money in the Highway Trust Fund to cover the costs of both maintenance and improvements.
The Federal gas tax was never indexed for inflation, so it stayed stagnant. So why not raise the gas tax already? Consumers will hardly notice. Even President Trump says it is “on the table for discussion.” The gas tax needs to be increased or at least indexed for inflation.
Your members of Congress need to know that you support that. They need ways to get comfortable raising a tax. The way for them to get comfortable is for them to hear from their constituents. If their constituents are behind an increase in the gas tax–both individuals and construction companies and architects and engineers and any supplier of materials for new infrastructure-then thy can gain more comfort voting for an action that they fear could hurt them politically.
What else can help pay for infrastructure?
Why not issue special bonds for regionally significant projects like ports and intermodal connectors? Public Private Partnerships, where private companies get involved in ownership, upkeep and maintenance for a fee have been very successful. Get shippers, growers, manufacturers, drivers and carriers (both truck and rail) to give their member of Congress and Senator enough support to make it easier to issue bonds to pay for projects.
When constituents show support in large numbers Congress listens.
Paying for infrastructure with a gas tax, bonds and public/private partnerships are clean and easy solutions- LOGICALLY. But not POLITICALLY. It is up to the industries and individual companies that benefit- which is pretty much every industry (directly or indirectly) to muster enough support that Congress feels politically comfortable to make these law changes that are not politically popular.
Raising taxes is politically unpalatable, especially in a tax-cut environment in DC.
What you can do to help?
The ONLY way to make them palatable is to convince individual members that their constituents support a gas tax increase-if it leads to infrastructure improvements. If the people who elect them want this (and they should!) they have to work with that members to educate them on what it means for the price of gas, how it will be used and why it is in THEIR best interest to get an infrastructure bill passed.
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