February 7, 2012

Background

The House Ways and Means Committee approved the tax title (H.R. 3864) for the House Surface Transportation Authorization bill (H.R. 7) last week. The Ways and Means title takes motor fuels tax revenues that have been dedicated to public transportation and deposited into the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund since 1983. The bill moves those revenues into the Highway Account to support highway investment. It eliminates the current Mass Transit Account and replaces it with a new Alternative Transportation Account that is funded with a one-time appropriation of $40 billion. The new Alternative Transportation Account would fund the federal transit program in fiscal years 2013 through 2016, as well as the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program and several small highway programs.

Talking Points

• Public transportation is an important part of the nation’s entire transportation system. Federal investment in public transportation service improves the efficiency of the system in communities of all sizes. It reduces congestion, provides access to jobs, and supports private sector jobs in communities across the country.
• APTA strongly opposes the Ways and Means proposal and believes that motor fuels tax revenues that are now dedicated to public transportation investment should remain dedicated to public transportation.
• New revenues will be needed to finance transit and highway programs authorized in the bill and those revenues can and should be used to supplement current revenues that are now dedicated to transit and highway investment.
• The Ways and Means proposal to fund public transportation investment with a one-time appropriation would leave transit without any funding source when those funds run out in 2016.
• Reliance on the appropriation of general funds to support public transportation investment would inject uncertainty and unpredictability into the funding process for transit, thereby inhibiting the ability and increasing the cost for transit systems and state and local governments to bond against federal funding, undertake multi-year transportation projects or leverage private investment.
• The Ways and Means proposal would eliminate a reliable, long-term financing mechanism for public transportation that was first established under President Reagan in 1983.
• The Federal Government now has trust funds that support Transit and Highways, Airports and Airways, Harbor Maintenance, and Inland Waterways. These trust funds address basic investment needs in the nation’s transportation system, provide predictable funding for major capital projects, and reflect the importance of all of these transportation modes. Preserve the Mass Transit Account!