advertisement

---

Presidential Deficit Commission co-chairs Erskine Bowels and Alan Simpson recently submitted a report to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that proposes to preserve and improve the country’s transportation network by phasing in a 15-cent motor fuels tax increase to help fund transportation improvements, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

The tax increase is consistent with recommendations previously submitted by two independent, bi-partisan commissions: the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission and National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, APTA said.

“Both commissions analyzed this problem and their recommendations recognized that while leverage and public-private partnerships are useful financing tools for infrastructure projects, they are not a substitute for core federal investment,” said APTA President William Millar in a prepared statement. “The [commissions] all recognized the need to provide the kind of predictable funding needed to advance major transportation infrastructure projects.”

In addition, an increase in the motor fuels tax would “allow Congress to move forward with a long-term reauthorization of the surface transportation program that provides the resources and policy reforms necessary,” Millar said.