The Fleet Business Authority
Issue link: http://heavydutytrucking.epubxp.com/i/221397
WASHINGTONreport fees back to the states, and let the states use them as they replace or supplement the current system. see fit, as proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. One suggestion is to move to a hybrid structure that A third possibility is to keep the existing fuel tax and would lower the tax when fuel prices rise, and increase it fee system, and increase or index the taxes. when they fall. This approach would combine the variable This is the key recommendation of the national comfuel tax with a per-barrel fee on domestic and imported oil. missions Congress chartered to study the Another, more familiar, suggestion is to issue, and it was proposed as an amendinstitute a vehicle-mile tax, as Oregon and The reform ideas ment during drafting of last year's highsummarized on the other states are testing now. This approach way bill by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming. is widely considered to be an alternative Baucus-Camp It is the approach supported by ATA and to the fuel tax in the long term because it many other highway users who say the website reflect the full addresses the funding shortfall that will fuel tax is the most direct, cost-effective grow over time as vehicles become more spectrum of way to raise revenues over the near term. fuel-efficient. One subset of this approach includes Other ideas to supplement the Fund perspectives on raising the other fees that feed the Highare surcharges on driver's licenses and highway funding, way Trust Fund, such as equipment sales vehicle registration, as well as new fees on from essentially taxes and the heavy vehicle use fee. hybrids and other more efficient vehicles. A related alternative would be to Also on the list: slap an excise tax on doing nothing to convert the fuel tax to a sales tax that is bicycles, creating what would in effect be fundamentally changing a use tax. percentage of the fuel price. One variation on this theme, put And here's an idea that would have to the current system. forward by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., thread a tiny political needle: repeal the would be to replace not just the fuel tax, but also all other taxes and fees that feed the Fund and replace them with a user fees, with the sales tax. This idea intrigues Phillips carbon tax on transportation fuel. because it removes the burden of all those extra levies and it Another idea is a repeat of a suggestion that came up introduces an indexing mechanism. But indexing the tax to during the debate over last year's highway bill, but went fuel prices makes it vulnerable to the periodic price swings nowhere: increase leases for oil and gas production and that hit the market. A better trigger would be the Consum- dedicate the money to the Fund. er Price Index, which is more predictable, Phillips said. Financing vs. revenues The fourth idea contemplates a range of moves to The last group of suggestions center around financing rather than revenues. They include authorizing additional private activity bonds, providing direct subsidy or tax credCongressional panel weighs in it bonds, or establishing a national infrastructure bank. congressional panel recommended a comInto this category would go the suggestion by Rep. prehensive, multimodal approach to freight John Delaney, D-Md., to provide $50 billion in loans transportation with robust, sustainable fundand loan guarantees, financed by the sale of infrastrucing from public and private sources. ture bonds. Delaney is proposing to give corporations The bipartisan Panel on 21st Century Freight an incentive to buy the bonds by letting them repatriate Transportation unanimously backed more spending some of their overseas earnings tax-free. He is working on freight infrastructure, but it did not take a position with senators to draft a companion bill similar to the one on where the money should come from. already introduced in the House, said spokesman Will The panel was established by Reps. Bill ShusMcDonald in response to an email query. ter, R-Pa., and Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., leaders of the "Down the road," he said, "the bill could become part Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to of the tax reform discussion." study freight transport in preparation for drafting These are the choices the Finance and Ways and Means next year's highway bill. The report lists a number of Committees are considering, but their decisions will not funding and financing options, ranging from increasbe known until their drafts emerge. ing fuel taxes to such freight options as a waybill tax The strong preference of the business community, as exor a container fee. pressed by ATA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is for Read more at www.truckinginfo.com/freightpanel. a bump in fuel taxes coupled with an indexing mechanism. A 14 HDT • DECEMBER 2013 www.truckinginfo.com