Washington — With unemployment claims at a 26-year high and America’s manufacturing sector hemorrhaging jobs, Senators Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar called on Senate leaders to reconsider using transportation funding formulas for part of the economic stimulus package that are “unfair to the millions of taxpayers we represent.”

Bayh and Lugar expressed concerns with using the existing formula for roads, bridges and other surface transportation infrastructure, noting that Indiana taxpayers “receive less than a dollar for every dollar of money we contribute to the Highway Trust Fund.”

In a letter sent today to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, they wrote, “If the economic stimulus is supposed to create jobs, we should reconsider the need to follow a formula which takes funding away from some states that have higher unemployment than the national average. Funding should be allocated based on economic need, and specifically on putting the most number of Americans back to work as soon as possible.”

Across the United States, more than 2 million workers have lost jobs this year, driving the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent. Bayh and Lugar believe funding allocations for surface infrastructure should provide the greatest benefit to the states hit hardest by the recession, as chiefly measured by unemployment figures, foreclosure rates and increased food stamp usage.

Bayh and Lugar were joined on the bipartisan letter by Michigan Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow and Florida Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez. Indiana, Michigan and Florida have lost more than 90,000 manufacturing jobs since December 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“No sector of our economy is under greater strain than the manufacturing sector,” they wrote to the Senate leadership. “We hope that as you craft this economic stimulus package, you will strongly consider this an opportunity to stimulate the economy and create jobs by including a fair funding formula for transportation that provides equity to all states.”

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