ANKENY, Iowa – Roads across the United States are in poor condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. In its 2013 assessment of surface transportation across the country, helpfully delivered in report card form, the ASCE graded U.S. roads with a D, and America’s bridges were awarded a C+, due to structural deficiency.
To get the nation’s roads back to the top of the class, the Ankeny-based Soy Transportation Coalition is working with researchers at Indiana University to examine the impacts of hypothtical state and federal legislation that would lower the gasoline and diesel tax by one cent, and subsequently index the tax to inflation. The new funds would then go into supporting roads and bridges.
As it’s done currently, gas taxes are increased by vote in a state legislature or by acts of Congress. Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek says a better tactic is indexing the tax to inflation, with a short-term decrease of one cent on the tax to sweeten the deal for lawmakers.
“You hear a lot of policy makers talk about ‘Today is not the day to increase fuel taxes, because the economy is in the doldrums,'” Steenhoek says. “But then when the economy does rebound you’ll hear that same argument: ‘Well, this is definitely not the time for increasing fuel taxes because our economy finally has its sea legs.’ And you can make that argument when gasoline prices are high and when gasoline prices are low.”
Steenhoek points out that the other part of the proposal, indexing the tax to inflation, would eliminate funding gaps.
“When your strategy is just to increase the number of cents per gallon, you might get some immediate relief, but it’s only a matter of time. Given the fact that construction costs go up that you’re going to run into the same problem: funding gaps; having a mismatch between the revenue that goes into the system and the cost of supporting it. So, we know that we’re going to have to address it again in the future.”
The Soy Transportation Coalition will have more information in April.
