President’s Transportation Budget Will Cost Drivers More without Improving Roads

Our lame duck President’s final transportation budget is too little, too late, and wrongly focused. Throughout the Highway Bill debate, the Laborers’ International Union of North America urged Congress and the President to pass an increase in the gas tax in order to ensure funding for the Highway Trust Fund. The White House refused to support this common-sense approach to our transportation financing needs. It appears that environmental extremists have convinced the President to tax our energy sector through a $10 oil tax in order to pay for clean transportation investment. It is a poor policy proposal that will cost drivers more without actually doing anything to improve the roads they drive on. The proposal also sidesteps the urgent need to provide sustainable investment for all transportation infrastructure rather than stealing from roads and bridges to invest in transit.

For decades Congress has failed to act due to a partisan freeze on legislating. Many governmental officials agree that adjusting and indexing the gas tax will help rescue our nation’s Transportation Trust Fund. It has been more than two decades since the addition of a 4.3 cent federal gas tax, which has been more than wiped out because Congress failed to index the rate to inflation. Every year we wait, New York area drivers are forced to pay a much higher price than any gas tax. The economic cost of our crumbling infrastructure is about $3.1 trillion in GDP, $1.1 trillion in trade and 3.5 million in jobs by 2020. On an individual basis, the average New York motorist wastes $601 a year on fuel and repairs due to the deterioration of our roadways. Just a dime’s worth of difference now could mean a total annual savings of more than $250 million throughout the state not to mention the economic benefits of job creation to repair our crumbling infrastructure.

Our country needs a long-term strategy for investing in its backbone. Doing so will drive our economy, keep us globally competitive, create jobs and restore us to the ranks of nations with the most advanced infrastructure. Call or write your elected officials and encourage them to invest in our roads, bridges and transit systems.Congressman Brian Higgins – 716-852-3501; Congressman Chris Collins: 716-634-2324; Senator Charles Schumer – 716-846-4111; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand – 716 854-9725

-Local 91