DOT 06-08
Contact: Brian Turmail, Tel.: (202) 366-4570
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Secretary Peters Rejects Call for Massive Gas Tax Increase and New Federal
Transportation Bureaucracy
Secretary and Two Other Federal Commissioners Release Proposal for Giving States
More Resources, More Options and More Flexibility to Finance Transportation
Projects
WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced that
she and two other members of a Congressional commission will not endorse the
groups’ call for substantial state and federal gas tax hikes, a new federal
bureaucracy to centralize transportation decision making, new limitations on
states’ abilities to attract private sector investments and a first of its kind
federal tax on all public transportation and intercity passenger rail tickets.
“Raising gas taxes won’t improve traffic congestion, it will only perpetuate our
ineffective reliance on fossil-based fuels to fund infrastructure and send more
of Americans’ hard-earned money to Washington to be squandered on earmarks and
special interest programs,” Secretary Peters said. “A better way forward is to
provide incentives to states willing to pursue more efficient approaches and to
invest federal funds more effectively to give commuters real relief from
gridlock.”
The Secretary, along with Commissioners Maria Cino and Rick Geddes, said they
would not sign the final report of the National Surface Transportation Policy
and Revenue Study Commission, which was created by Congress in 2005. The
Secretary said she was deeply troubled by the Commission’s call for an up to 40
cent per gallon federal gasoline tax increase over the next five years, rising
to up to 91 cents in 20 years when indexed for inflation. She added the report
also assumes that states will increase their gas taxes by up to 60 cents per
gallon over the next five years. She said recent studies, including one from the
Government Accountability Office last summer, have concluded gas taxes don’t
work to reduce traffic congestion.
The Secretary, along with Commissioners Cino and Geddes, instead released their
approach for addressing the nation’s transportation challenges. The “Chairman’s
Statement” notes that transportation planners have an unprecedented range of
options available to them to reduce traffic congestion, finance new projects and
maintain existing transportation systems. For example, the statement notes that
many states are already using technology such as congestion pricing and
high-speed open road tolling to raise revenue and reduce traffic tie ups. And it
says that there are billions of dollars in private capital available to
transportation officials that could easily be tapped to finance new projects.
“There is nothing to indicate that Washington would do a better job spending
billions more of the taxpayers’ money than it has so far,” said Secretary
Peters. “The answer isn’t more taxes and added layers of bureaucracy, it is
having the courage to say the current system is broken and it is time to find a
better way to invest in, manage and operate our transportation system.”
The Chairman's Statement is available at www.dot.gov/affairs/Chairmansstatement.htm.
The Compare and Contrast Fact Sheet is available at www.dot.gov/affairs/FactSheet.pdf
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