Oh dear. Seems the highway trust fund is paid for by a gas tax per gallon, not a percentage rate. So as people drive less, revenue goes down.
Bushco solution*: Stick it to mass transit at the precise moment that people are discovering it. Also, prepare the public for privately-owned roads with tolls rivaling your cable bill. :eyes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29transport.htmlGasoline tax revenue is falling so fast that the federal government may not be able to meet its commitments to states for road projects already under way, the secretary of transportation said Monday.
The secretary, Mary E. Peters, said the short-term solution would be for the Highway Trust Fund's highway account to borrow money from the fund's mass transit account, a step that would balance the accounts as highway travel declines and use of mass transit increases. Both trends are being driven by the high price of gasoline and diesel fuel....
"Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the way to go," said the president of the American Public Transportation Association, William W. Millar. "The administration proposal is shortsighted and would mean that the mass transit account would be reduced to the point where there would not be enough money to fund the federal transit program in 2010, even at the current level."...
As for a longer-term solution, Ms. Peters said that on Wednesday she would propose a new arrangement for paying for highways, based in part on private capital financing and use of tolls that vary by time of day.Fortunately for all of us, Ms. Peters and her ilk will not be around anywhere near long enough to implement any "longer-term solutions".
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