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Budget Deficit Soaks Up Taxes Collected To Maintain Harbors

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 5, 2008

Your paycheck and your new TV made in China have one thing in common. Both are taxed for a specific, essential purpose, yet a big part of the money is being drained away for other things.

That diversion could mean future problems for the Tampa shipping channel.

Both the payroll deduction for Social Security and the import tax for harbor maintenance have built up huge surpluses, on paper, in their respective trust funds. The federal government can tell you to the penny how much is owed to these funds.

The accurate accounting doesn't mean the money is available to spend. The bigger the debt in the Social Security Trust Fund, the bigger the obligation faced by future taxpayers.

A similar switcheroo has been happening in recent years with the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. Your new TV and everything else imported by ship is assessed a tax of 0.125 percent of its value. The tax is to pay for port maintenance.

The concept is sound. Those who use the ports are charged a tax to maintain them. This tax adds to the retail cost of merchandise, and we consumers ultimately pay the bill. Still, it's fair that the more products you buy that arrive by ship, the more you pay to help keep the shipping channels safe and deep.

Shippers are pumping about $1.3 billion a year into the fund, but only about $750 million is being spent on maintenance. For 2009, the Army Corps of Engineers is getting less maintenance money than Tampa and many other ports need.

Port officials around the country complain that maintenance schedules are falling behind and some channels are in need of dredging. While the Army Corps of Engineers is getting less money than it is asking for to keep up with dredging, more than $4 billion has built up in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

That big balance makes the federal deficit seem smaller.

Even though Tampa this year is getting less maintenance money than engineers think is needed, so far, the 70 miles of channels serving the Port of Tampa are in good shape. A port spokesman says no ships here have had to reduce their loads. Its current dredging project to add passing lanes is classified as an improvement, not maintenance, so will be paid from general revenue, not the import tax.

But some other ports have reported maintenance problems, such as not being able to handle fully loaded ships because channels aren't as deep as they should be.

With ships increasing in size and draft and the pace of trade increasing, now is the wrong time to skimp on harbor maintenance. Congress should either begin spending all the revenue on authorized projects or else lower the tax.

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