The Truckload Carriers Association has recently announced it would support a fuel tax increase as a preferred method of highway funding over alternative methods such as privatization, tolling, weight/distance taxes or ton-mile taxes. This decision brings TCA in line with the policy championed by American Trucking Associations to raise fuel taxes to support highway infrastructure improvements. TCA, a long time opponent of fuel tax increases, took the first step toward the new position in late 2008, when it began to discuss new approaches to highway funding. That topic remains a key issue before Congress as it debates reauthorization of transportation-funding legislation this year. Financing problems were brought to the public forefront last year when Congress transferred $8 billion of general revenue into the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent. Last month, a commission created by Congress recommended raising diesel fuel taxes 15 cents a gallon until other levies based on miles driven can be created. This would be the first fuel tax increase since 1993, and TCA says they would be willing to pay as long as these higher tax revenues are dedicated to highway improvements.
TCA had previously expressed disappointment in an Obama administration budget proposal that would put fuel tax revenue into the government’s general fund instead of the Highway Trust Fund. Should the proposed fuel tax increase be approved, it will add to the growing number of financial burdens facing members of the transportation industry of late. To learn how Diligent can help ease the strain of these costs, call us at 1-888-374-3354.
