SAFETEA-LU: 
To re-authorize or un-authorize?

April 22, 2008

By Skip Schneider, Texas Good Roads Transportation Association

While some states focus their attention on re-authorizing, and improving, the federal transportation law that expires in 2009, Indiana is leading a multistate Transportation Transformation Group (T2) aiming to stick SAFETEA-LU in the shredder.

Ann Valentine, transportation policy director for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, called SAFETEA-LU a flawed program, with no vision and no accountability.  It is “process-driven, not outcome-driven,” she said.

“We support a transformation, not just a reauthorization of current policies,” she asserted.

T2 supports a national plan that sets and reaches goals, not simply mandates that processes be followed.

Its principles include a system that enhances quality of life and maintains global competitiveness by reducing congestion and increasing mobility.

Valentine called for redefining roles of federal, state and local governments and the private sector.

Policies, she added, should provide maximum flexibility in finance, procurement and operation of facilities.  Allow for dissenting views. The new bill should identify no more than five project categories .

They should “allow states to develop and implement seamless multimodal solutions that best achieve transportation goals.”

Yes, continue the federal fuel tax. But provide “significant program reforms and innovative financing methods that are made fully available to states.”

“It is imperative to rethink the way we approach transportation,” Valentine concluded.  “Run SAFETEA-LU through the shredder…start with something new.”

Prior to 2005, Valentine said Indiana had lots of plans on the shelf, but no dollars to build the projects.  Its citizens had high expectations, while the state had no ability to deliver.

Indiana took a revolutionary step, leasing its cross-state toll road to a private investor for $3.85 billion.  All of the proceeds will go toward transportation.

The cash will fully fund the state’s 10-year transportation program and all 92 counties will receive a two-year cash infusion.

Jim Bourgart, a California transportation official, described the Building America’s Future Coalition, another multistate group pushing change in federal transportation policy, albeit through a reauthorized law.

The coalition’s principles include a strengthened commitment to safety, Highway Trust Fund integrity, a new, user-based revenue source (a successor to the per-gallon tax), environmental stewardship, and streamlined project delivery (it takes too long and undermines public confidence).

Bourgart, the deputy secretary for transportation and infrastructure in the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, said earmarking should be kept to a minimum.  “It gives government a bad name,” he added.

“Congestion is noticeably worse” than seven years ago when SAFETEA-LU was authorized, Bourgart said.

There is strong interest in improving the financing of freight movement, he added, and California and other coastal states carry a heavy burden of the facility costs for foreign imports destined for other states and foreign exports from other states.

California, in its search for new funding, chose to allow counties to assess a half-cent sales tax for transportation.

“The stage is set for a new wave of transportation funding (at the federal level),” Bourgart concluded.  “But consensus will not be easy.”

On the Texas Transportation Forum panel, hearing the calls from Indiana, California and other states, was Jim Tymon, the congressional staffer who had a big hand in crafting SAFETEA-LU.   The Republican staff director for the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, Tymon acknowledged hearing from groups to be more revolutionary.   “Congress is not good at that,” he quipped.

Working for Florida Rep. John Mica, Tyman said Mica also wants to look at options that are more creative and to streamline project delivery.

“Six or seven years ago, people were not calling for changes,” he said. Today, he added, “coalitions are calling for drastic changes.”          

The current law expires on Sept. 30, 2009.  Presidential politics compound the debate and make it tougher to find consensus.

“It is unrealistic to think (the new bill draft) can be done before July 4, 2009,” Tyman said.  “We hope to get it done by the end of 2009.”

Commenting on the national commission’s suggestion of a 40-cent federal gas tax increase, he admitted, “In this political environment, it will be hard to raise the tax.”

Nationally, earmarks poll poorly, Tyman said.  “Locally, everybody loves them.”

We need to make a fundamental change on earmarks, he added.  He predicted earmarks probably would be held to 10% of spending.

For 2009, Tyman said we are likely to see an infusion of general funds.  “The Highway Trust Fund deserves to be repaid” for the times its funds have been used for other purposes.