Oberstar floats container fee to fund infrastructure

Implementing a $10-per-TEU fee on every container moving through a U.S. port would raise roughly $3 billion over six years to help finance freight-related infrastructure improvements, James L. Oberstar, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, told a Ways and Means subcommittee hearing last Thursday.
      In testimony before the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, Oberstar and Subcommittee Chairman Peter A. DeFazio laid out what they said were "best options" for addressing a short-term shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, as well as supplementing current fuel tax revenue to finance the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009, which would restructures Federal surface transportation by, among other things, consolidating or terminating more than 75 programs, and authorizes spending $450 billion over six years.
      Oberstar said $450 billion is the "minimum amount needed to stop the decline in our surface transportation system, begin to make improvements, and restore and enhance the nation’s mobility and economic productivity. "
      "Without additional revenues, a six-year surface transportation authorization bill could fund only $236 billion in highway, highway safety and transit investment -- a $90.4 billion cut from the current investment level ($326 billion) over the next six years," Oberstar said.
      "The previous administration’s unwillingness to make hard choices has left the 111th Congress, and particularly the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, with the unenviable task of finding a way to finance the existing program level, in addition to much-needed increases in investment," he said.
      "The current administration is not ready to make choices, and proposes to defer a long-term authorization act for 18 months. Our committee, however, is ready; we have done our homework and have a six- year bill ready for floor action," Oberstar added.
      Oberstar said the Highway Trust Fund "needs a short-term infusion of cash to finance existing commitments through the end of the fiscal year," and called for the committee and Ways and Means to transfer at least $3 billion from the general fund to the highway account of the Trust Fund.
      For the long term, he said, "there are numerous options to finance the surface transportation framework" set forth by his committee, but said the core source of funding for the investment contained in the new authorization must continue to be a stable, reliable and dedicated revenue stream, including user fees."
      He noted two commissions established by Congress, the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission and the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, recommended that the gasoline and diesel user fees be increased. Oberstar said he did not believe this should be done before the economy fully recovers.
      Instead he laid out a variety of other financing options including:
      • Restore $6.8 billion borrowed from the Highway Trust Fund by the U.S. general fund for emergency relief after events such as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and natural disasters, $635 million for vehicle safety research, and restore $20 billion in "foregone interest" to the highway trust fund which he said does not earn interest as does the airport and airway trust funds.
      • Issue $60 billion of 10-year treasury bonds that would be repaid beginning in fiscal year 2012 with revenue from the Highway Trust Fund.
      • Require the general fund, rather than the Highway Trust Fund, to support long-standing fuel tax exemptions for certain uses of fuel, such as use by state and local governments and non-profit educational organizations, which he said would bring in $6 billion over six years.
      • Increase the per barrel excise tax on crude oil and imported gasoline and diesel, which he said would bring in $24 billion over six years.
      • Institute a transaction tax of 0.2 percent on speculative trading of crude oil futures, which would bring in $190 billion over six years.
      • Implementation of other user fees recommended by the two policy and financing commissions such as an increase in the heavy vehicle use tax for trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 55,000 pounds or more. The financing commission proposed to double the annual tax rate to $200 plus $44 for every 1,000 pounds the truck exceeds 55,000, and increase the maximum tax to $1,100 to restore the purchasing power of the tax. This option would provide an estimated $6.7 billion to the Highway Trust Fund over six years.
      • A national annual vehicle registration fee of $2.75 per car and $5.50 per truck, which would raise $6 billion over six years.
      • The $10-per-TEU container fee, which he said was originally proposed by the financing commission.
      • A freight waybill tax, which would be a sales tax on freight shipping cost of 0.1 percent tax on truck freight waybills that would raise $620 million per year and a similar tax on waybills for all transportation modes would raise $740 million annually.

Source: American Shipper