Our state
Transportation Trust Fund is in trouble, and, with it, our
vision for a wider Route 32 and a less congested Liberty Road.
Even though the Trust Fund is a special pot of money to
be spent only on maintenance and construction of
transportation projects, it is repeatedly raided to fill holes
in the state budget.
What to do?
Some
legislators want to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon to
replenish the fund and then increase it every year thereafter
up to a penny a gallon more.
Raising taxes is
not
the answer to our budget problems. We are the
4th highest taxed state in the nation now. I
do not support increasing any
taxes-period.
Instead,
we
must protect the Transportation Trust Fund from raids
and diversions so that sufficient highway user funds
can flow to cities and counties and so our stalled state
highway construction plans can get moving again.
My
Transportation Trust Fund Protection Act (HB518), co-sponsored by 34 Republicans and
eight Democrats, is a Constitutional Amendment that would get
us moving again without higher taxes. It is
scheduled for a public hearing 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the
House Appropriations Committee.
We can't continue
to allow our transportation dollars to be snatched away. Over
the past 25 years, elected officials have diverted more than
$700 million from the Trust Fund for non-transportation
purposes ranging from bank bailouts to balancing the state
budget. While much of that has been re-paid, at least $127.1
million has not.
The Governor's
proposed fy2012 budget calls for transferring another $100
million from the Transportation Trust Fund. Since fy2007,
highway user revenues to counties have been cut by more than
96 percent. Those cuts would continue under the Governor's
proposed budget.
