U.S. highway trust fund veers toward crisis

[phantom power]

WASHINGTON -- Soaring gasoline prices are hurting Uncle Sam in the wallet too.

As motorists cut back on their driving and buy more fuel-efficient cars, the government is taking in less money from the federal gasoline tax.

The result: The principal source of funding for highway projects will soon hit a big financial pothole. The federal highway trust fund could be in the red by $3.2 billion or more next year.

The fund, set to finance about $40 billion in transportation projects next year, is increasingly strained. And the problem has taken on greater urgency as lawmakers face a backlog of projects to maintain the nation's aging interstate highway system and ease traffic congestion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-highway21-2008jul21,0,1945553.story

[Finishline42]

1. Gas tax holiday anyone?

The gas tax holiday would only make the problem worse. It means a lot of construction jobs lost on projects being delayed or canceled.

[tularetom]

2. Don't drive over any bridges

Or under them too, for that matter.

[predfan]

3. a penny on the gas tax generates roughly $1 B a year.....

If we're not willing to pay as we go, let's not shift the burden onto our grandchildren.


BTW, if we were paying for Iraq in real time, we'd already be out.

[woodsprite]

4. Guess China and Saudi Arabia will own our roads soon. n/t

[madokie]

5. Our fuel companies are stealing us blind

robbing our country. This weekend I read where our sheriff department has had to go on a fuel diet to the point that they now are making reports by phone rather than in person, something just a few months was never an option, now its the norm. It sucks what is going on today in america and for the most part its being condoned by our government officials.

[depakid]

6. Seems like a good rationale for a windfall profits tax