Last week at his State of the Union Address, President Trump spotlighted “the hottest economy in the world.” From record-low unemployment to job growth in the manufacturing sector to rising wages and growing energy independence, the U.S. is in a boom not seen in years. All of which brings us to the big question: Can President Trump and a divided Congress keep the momentum going?
At the same time we are seeing great economic gains, our infrastructure remains in miserable disrepair due to years of neglect and a lack of resolve from our leaders in Washington. The undeniable fact is that our nation’s infrastructure has reached a breaking point. The latest report released by the American Transportation Research Institute highlights the worst traffic bottlenecks across the country. From Atlanta’s I-285 at I-85, to Chicago’s I-290 at I-90, to Cincinnati’s I-71 at I-75, Americans from coast to coast are suffering from a rapidly deteriorating road system.
The resulting traffic congestion is robbing them of their time and money, and it’s pumping the brakes on our thriving economy.
Consider this: The average motorist loses nearly $1,600 a year in vehicle repairs, lost time, and wasted gas because of traffic congestion. Highway congestion adds nearly $75 billion to the cost of freight transportation each year — costs that impact the entire supply chain, ultimately costing consumers more at the store. In 2016, truck drivers sat in traffic for nearly 1.2 billion hours, which is equivalent to more than 425,000 drivers sitting idle for a year.
Our growing economy can only be as strong as the roads and bridges that connect us, and now is the time for a bold vision to build a next-generation infrastructure. While numerous funding solutions have been proposed, America’s truckers have proposed the Build America Fund: a five-cent-per-gallon user fee added on to all transportation fuels each year for four years, including diesel, gasoline, and natural gas.
The fee will be applied at the wholesale terminal rack, before the retail gas pump, and indexed to inflation and improvements in fuel efficiency. The trucking industry is already paying half of the Highway Trust Fund’s current user fee revenue and is willing to shoulder a large share of the $340 billion that this new plan would generate.
The BAF is the most immediate, cost-efficient, and fiscally conservative mechanism currently available for funding surface transportation improvements. Collection costs are less than one percent of revenue. It will not add to the federal debt or force states to resort to detrimental financing options that could jeopardize their bond ratings. This plan avoids deficit spending and overseas borrowing from nations like China, and it won’t add a penny to the taxes Americans submit on April 15.
Compare this to the high cost of “public-private partnerships” — a code term for tolling — where as much as 33 percent of revenue generated is wasted on administrative, collection and enforcement costs. Americans are growing weary of the high cost of tolls. One only needs to look at I-66 in Northern Virginia, where tolls average more than $12.00 one way and can sometimes exceed $47.50, to understand the impact on lower- and middle-income Americans. President Trump rightly notes that tolls and borrowing more money from China are not real solutions. The BAF is a real solution that will deliver.
Americans are in this together. For the cost of a nickel, we can begin reclaiming our lost time and spent stuck in gridlock. We deserve less time in traffic and more time with family. We can hit the accelerator on our economy.
Now is the time to reverse decades of failed leadership and create a legacy that Americans will see, feel and use for decades to come. As the Builder-in-Chief stated to the nation his address, “There is a new opportunity in American politics, if only we have the courage together to seize it.”
Chris Spear is president and CEO of American Trucking Associations.
