It’s Time to Unite and Act Now
By Brian Dolan, President
Maryland Asphalt Association

Surface transportation in America and our highway infrastructure in particular is suffering from acute underfunding. As 2010 looms perilously close, the Maryland State Highway Administration will be financially challenged and most probably will not be able to deliver adequate highway system preservation. Our roadways and bridges will deteriorate during 2010. Thirty-five of the fifty United States will not be able to meet the required match for federal dollars if the federal government acts to continue funding an Intermodal Surface Federal Transportation Program.

In the early 1990’s the US DOT and the United States Congress acted decisively to plan for and fund the future of the American Highway Infrastructure. ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act) the first in a series of well thought out and well funded highway programs became the law of the land. This bill was a six-year authorization and saw annual federal highway spending in the twenty-billion dollar range. The last federal gasoline tax increase was passed and a surplus began to accumulate in the Federal Transportation Trust Fund.

Six years later a new funding mechanism was needed and Congress failed to act. Time passed and we first learned about continuing resolutions. Since a positive balance existed in the Federal Transportation Trust Fund and Congress passed short extensions of the existing program the highway industry was able to continue making progress. Funding levels increased gradually and within months the next six-year funding mechanism was passed. TEA 21 (Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century) helped us understand the difference between contract authorization and obligated balances. Diversion appeared for the first time as new federal highway categories were created. Transportation tax dollars were accumulating at a faster rate than they were being spent. By the end of the TEA 21 authorization period the Federal Highway Trust Fund was ballooning with a structural balance in excess of twenty billion dollars. The cost of maintaining and expanding our highway system was growing expedentially as both vehicle miles travelled and freight tonnage moved by motor carrier reached all-time new highs. Income to the trust fund reached thirty-billion dollars annually and the highway trust fund balance was healthy. At the end of TEA 21 everyone and everything was moving smoothly and neither the US DOT nor the United States Congress felt any pressure to reauthorize in a timely manner or at a proper funding level. After all income exceeded demands, the highway industry was flourishing and the American people were more concerned with Homeland Security issues than “Intermodal Surface Transportation”. The nation’s highways were in good condition, the Trust Fund was growing and the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was fresh on everyone’s mind. Congress took three full years to pass the next six year highway funding package. Over forty-billion dollars were being spent annually on surface transportation, AMTRAK was bankrupt and revenues were constant at about thirty-billion dollars annually. As passage of SAFETEA-LU occurred a conscious decision was made to spend down the Trust Fund and provide adequate funding through fiscal 2009 without increasing Trust Fund revenue. IT ALMOST WORKED!! Unfortunately the Trust Fund was bankrupt before reauthorization begun and we learned other new terms such as recission.

The housing bubble burst leading to the collapse of the US mortgage industry. Corruption was discovered as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the nation’s banks teetered on the verge of collapse. Mortgage money became virtually unavailable and the US housing industry ground to a halt; thereby starting one of the most severe recessions our nation has ever experienced.

A new US President seeks national health care and international restrictions on carbon emissions. The US auto industry has collapsed, over ten percent of all Americans are unemployed.

The United States Congress is almost totally ignoring the lack of a Federal Transportation funding mechanism for the first time in twenty years. Over fifty percent of all Maryland Highway workers have been laid off. Congress has spent all of the trust fund monies. Diversion from the trust fund is ACUTE. CMAQ (congestion mitigation air quality) funds originally intended to help reduce congestion now fund transit. The Surface Transportation funds originally intended to fund highway preservation now are so rigidly administered that they can be more easily spent to build a museum (highway enhancement) than they can be used to repave a road.

Chairman Oberstar’s proposed bill transfers control of incoming funds away from State DOT’s and local highway departments and gives these responsibilities to Metropolitan Planning Councils. Unless we unite and act now the American highway system we have constructed and the American highway system our citizens cherish will cease to exist in its present form. In this recession actual highway income has dropped well below the thirty billion dollar annual level it produced for many years while organizations such as AASHTO have surveyed actual needs and believes them to be at least sixty billion dollars annually.

We must contact all of our federally elected Congressional leaders including Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, James Oberstar, Harry Reid, Chris Van Hollen, Steny Hoyer, Elijah Cummings, Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski. We also should contact Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood and advise them all that their inaction has led directly to the unemployment of thousands of Maryland highway workers!