Toward solvency for the Highway Trust Fund

According to NSSGA, after a one-day postponement, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved the "The American Infrastructure Investment and Improvement Act" on Sept. 21. The bill includes the Baucus-Grassley plan to restore short-term solvency to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). The bill also includes increased funding for aviation programs to support the reauthorization of the aviation program. The Baucus-Grassley plan responded to projections that the HTF would be running a deficit of as much as $4.3 billion by the expiration of SAFETEA-LU in 2009, and $5 billion if the billion dollars for bridge repair contained in the Senate version of the FY ’08 Transportation Appropriations bill is passed. In order to fill the funding gap, the plan would: replenish the HTF for emergency expenditures paid out of the fund since 1998, in response to hurricanes and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which more appropriately should be funded from the General Fund; suspend for six months the motor fuel tax exemptions provided to state and local governments and certain agricultural activities; and implement additional reforms to further crack down on illegal fuel tax evasion. It is projected that these changes will provide an additional $5.6 billion into the HTF, enough to ensure its short-term solvency while a plan is developed to meet the long-term investment needs of the nation’s surface transportation infrastructure. Your comment?