Expert Witness Blog
Trucking expert witnesses may consult on the trucking industry, trucking and transportation rules and regulations, as well as highways and transportation projects. In the news, Transport Topics writes that “Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx sent Congress a four-year transportation bill that relies on business tax reforms as a way to boost funds for a federal highway account that is quickly running out of money.”
USAToday writes that “States and local governments stand to lose $46.8 billion in federal funding for transportation and transit projects next year if Congress doesn’t put more money into the Highway Trust Fund and it slides into insolvency, according to a new report.” The Transporation for America report states:
Unless Congress adds new revenue to the nation’s transportation trust fund, the federal government will be unable to commit to funding any new transportation projects, depriving states and localities of resources critical to maintaining and improving the infrastructure that makes our economy possible.
America is at a crucial decision point for transportation. The nation’s transportation trust fund is facing a crisis. The gasoline tax that has sustained the federal transportation program since the middle of the last century is no longer keeping up with investment needs…
While every state raises their own transportation funds through some taxing mechanism and local governments contribute their own funds, federal funds account for the lion’s share of many major projects in the country, from a key bridge replacement or highway rehab to new rail cars and buses. Federal dollars account for half or more of the transportation capital budget in all but 15 states, and for many the share is two-thirds or more. (It’s more than 90 percent in Alaska and Rhode Island, for example.) Metro regions like Miami, Seattle, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul – to name just a few – could be out $100 million or more.
The American Trucking Associations supports a federal highway program that is financed primarily by user fees, and which focuses on improving highway networks that are most critical to the movement of freight and interstate travel. ATA is a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils. A long-time supporter of the fuel tax as the primary source of revenue for highway improvements, ATA is opposed to the tolling of existing highways, weight-distance taxes/vehicle miles traveled fees, and other inefficient funding and financing mechanisms. We support a reformed federal truck size and weight regime that gives states more flexibility to authorize safer, cleaner, more productive vehicles, and that retains federal regulations designed to promote interstate commerce.