Any area motorist can attest to the massive project underway to construct two new Innerbelt Bridges. Luckily the downtown access issues and construction headaches are temporary and it already has its funding.
However, some of that funding came from the Highway Trust Fund.
President Obama has said that the fund could have run out of money if Congress had not recently passed a funding extension.Officials from ODOT have stated that about 59% of the funding they devote to infrastructure comes from this fund. The Highway Trust Fund gets its funding from a gas tax (about $0.18 per gallon), which has been in place for two decades. It has not been adjusted for inflation.
Other factors at play: cars are much more fuel efficient now and require less gasoline, people are driving less compared to pre-recession levels, and construction costs have increased considerably.Local transportation leaders at the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) and ODOT have lamented how the financial instability of the Highway Trust Fund makes planning nearly impossible. If the Highway Trust Fund were to run out of money, local construction projects could be pushed back or cancelled.Please tell Congress to come up with a long-term fix for the Highway Trust Fund. See Crain’s Cleveland Business (7/20/14) for more info.