The city’s transportation chief on Wednesday said the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents a gallon does not cover what the DOT spends on the nations highways — and its a troublesome situation.
“[The tax] takes in $40 billion a year, give or take, but Congress has authorized DOT to spend $50-plus billion a year on highways and transit so there’s a huge gap there. And this summer we are going to start to hit the wall on that gap,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, noting that American have pretty good when it comes to gasoline taxes around the world.
“The federal gasoline tax has not been raised in 20 years . . . If you look at what they charge in Europe, you realize [the US tax] is pretty low,” she said.
“So this is a real crisis that is looming. I know there is a lot of talk in Washington right now about whether they put together a longer-term bill and what might be some potential revenue sources,” she added.
“It’s certainly not resolved and you know we are pretty close to August,” she said in reference to the date the current funding law expires.
The Highway Trust Fund relies on the gasoline tax to pay for road and transit projects.
Gasoline-tax revenues have fallen largely because of conservation efforts, including more fuel-efficient cars on the road.
Denise Richardson of the General Contractors Association of New York also supported the higher tax, saying the MTA also needs more federal funding.
“Raising the gas tax by even a nickel or a dime will help fund the Highway Trust Fund,” Richardson said. “If you raise it 25 cents we’ll have new money to build new projects, and yet we can’t get Congress to rule on the issue.”