Surface Transportation Funding and Federalism Considerations

Since the early 1980s, the periodic debate over the reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs has been primarily about money and its distribution. In each of the five reauthorizations that took place during that period, the federal fuel taxes and other sources of revenue dedicated to the highway trust were reliably providing the various surface transportation programs with more money year after year. In 2009, this was not the case. For the first time in decades, driving declined significantly, with a concomitant decrease in fuel tax revenues. Going forward the program cannot count on new money from the familiar sources. The law authorising federal surface transportation programs expired at the end of 2009, but Congress has failed to enact a new authorisation. This book examines the surface transportation program reauthorization issues for the 112th Congress; funding and finance; the Donor-Donee State issue of funding equity and federalism issues in surface transportation policy.