Like it or not, our roads need more revenue

The Des Moines Register

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Drivers dread traveling this time of year when construction crews go to work on the highways. There may be fewer delays in the future, though, because the money is running short for road construction. That is bad news for drivers using highways that are becoming less safe and more congested.

Building and maintaining the transportation network is largely paid for with federal and state taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. But the tax is falling short of the need for building new roads and bridges and repairing the old ones. The federal gas tax was last raised in 1993, and more fuel-efficient vehicles go farther on a gallon of gas now.

Thus, revenues have not grown fast enough to keep up with rapidly rising construction costs and growing traffic demand. That is sure to get worse as cars become increasingly efficient and people switch to hybrids or plug-ins.

Unless additional revenues are raised, roads and bridges will crumble, lives will be endangered, traffic will approach gridlock conditions in some cities and there will be more delays in travel and delivery of products to market.

That is unacceptable.

Highways are essential arteries for travel and commerce, and this nation must continue to invest in them. Politicians have a toxic aversion to raising taxes, but drivers have been paying at the pump for the privilege of good roads for the better part of a century. Americans have chosen the personal automobile as their favorite means of transportation, and they should be willing to pay for good roads.

The nation spends about $160 billion a year on highways, with about a fourth of that coming from the federal government. The major source of money - gasoline and diesel taxes collected by the states and by the federal government - does not raise enough money to pay for the growing cost of construction and maintenance. At the federal level, Congress has used $34.5 billion in general revenues since 2008 to make up for shortfalls in the Highway Trust Fund. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, over the next decade, demands on the trust fund will exceed revenues by nearly $115 billion. But using more general tax revenue in an era of staggering deficits is out of the question.

The problem is equally serious at the state level, including in Iowa. The most recent Iowa Department of Transportation study in 2006 projected an annual $200 million gap between road-use tax revenue and the most critical road building and maintenance demands. That study, being updated this year, is likely to show the gap has grown.

Eventually Iowa, and the federal government, must consider raising additional revenue to pay for road building and maintenance, including raising revenue from new sources. Besides fuel taxes, options include raising fees on vehicles, a tax on vehicle miles traveled, tolls and so-called congestion pricing. A side benefit is that some of those options could encourage people to use alternative modes of transportation, including mass transit, thus relieving urban congestion.

Besides first-class highways, this nation has built some of the greatest infrastructure in the world - including railroads, dams, airports, electrical power grids, sewers and water treatment facilities. That infrastructure, much of it built by earlier generations, is crumbling and is failing to meet the needs of a growing nation. America can afford to build and maintain this vital infrastructure, and it should start with highways.