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Group launches push for tolling expansion
The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) is launching a campaign to increase the acceptance among lawmakers of tolling as a transportation funding mechanism.
The campaign, called "Moving America Forward," is intended to extol the viability of tolling as lawmakers search for potential new sources of revenue for road and transit projects as traditional gas tax revenue dwindles.
The 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax has historically been used to pay for transportation projects. However, the gas tax currently generates about $35 billion per year, which is only $20 billion less annually than the $105 billion transportation bill that was appropriated by lawmakers last year.
The Washington, D.C.-based IBTTA said it was time to consider other sources of transportation revenue, like tolling.
“We’re launching this campaign to ensure that tolling is a key part of the discussions in Congress and elsewhere around the country on how to fund America’s transportation system,” IBTTA Executive Director Patrick Jones said in a statement. “IBTTA’s Moving America Forward public awareness campaign will make the case for the tolling industry’s permanent seat at the table when future transportation funding options are being considered.”
New House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) has recently referred to the funding gap as a "transportation fiscal cliff."
Shuster has expressed openness to considering tolling as a possible transportation funding sources. However, in his first comments to reporters as House Transportation Committee Chairman, Shuster expressed concerned that tolling might be a tough sale in many parts of the country.
"Tolling is something we need to probably take a look at," Shuster said in late November. "If I talk to all 50 [state governors], they'd say 'yeah, let's toll the whole thing.'"
But Shuster said he was not in favor of a universal application of tolling.
"I don't think that's reasonable to go out there and just say we're going to toll the entire interstate highway system," he said. "As I tell people, we think it's hard to raise … the gas tax, go tell the people, especially out west, they call them freeways, they're not going to be free anymore."
Congress has thus far limited tolling on existing roads to new lanes that are being constructed.
