Government
How Tolls Could Help Prevent a U.S. Transportation Crisis
In the midst of a federal funding disaster, a good idea emerges.
Earlier this week, Joseph Kile of the Congressional Budget Office outlined for a Senate committee the dire situation that is the Highway Trust Fund. The fund that pays for U.S. highway and transit projects — largely populated by the weak federal gas tax — will more or less run out of money by the end of fiscal 2014. Insolvency could occur as early as August, and the Department of Transportation may need to begin withholding payments to states this summer.
If the gas tax were a fuel gauge, we'd pretty much be in the red.