Road bill careening to dead end

Editorial

The new transportation bill in the U.S. House is being attacked by conservatives, liberals, moderates, transit advocates, bicyclists and environmentalists, to name a few.

The House bill would eliminate the longstanding share of the fuel tax allocated for buses and trains. Related funding bills would open sensitive coastal areas to oil drilling. The plan ends set-asides for sidewalks and trails and lets highways gobble up the 20 percent long reserved for transit, yet total transportation spending would continue to add to the federal debt.

There's not much good to say about the bill except that it contains no pet projects. Another transportation bill coming out of the Senate, while far from perfect, also contains no earmarks and is preferable in almost every way. But it too spends in the red.

The House plan would begin a dangerous precedent of using selected tariffs for transportation, moving away from the sound concept of a user-supported system. Highway users would begin to think they could get roads without paying, the same philosophy that has infected Congress.

The worst news for Florida is that the bill would eliminate the 125-mile buffer to oil drilling off the Florida coast in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, no matter what Florida lawmakers and voters think of that. The arrogant mandate would allow rigs close to shore, where they could threaten the state's tourism and fishing industries.

Drilling would also be allowed in other controversial places, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The idea is for additional oil royalties to help pay for the underfunded transportation network. But the expected revenue is small compared to the unfunded needs.

More significantly, the drilling mandate is a deal killer. Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa and others are sounding the alarm. The Senate is unlikely to pass it even if the House does.

Called the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012, it sacrifices longstanding bipartisan compromise to score political points. The bill came out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, headed by Rep. John Mica of Winter Park. He would set aside $40 million for transit through 2016, but Congress would have to make the allocation from general revenue, not fuel taxes.

Roads would have a predictable revenue stream while transit advocates would have to fight each year for their portion. This approach abandons a 30-year accommodation that has enabled urban transit system to survive and take cars off congested city streets.

Deficit hawks are dismayed that the bill calls for spending $52 billion a year while revenue would be less than $38 billion. By calling itself a jobs bill, it also appears to contradict Republican criticism of stimulus spending.

The tough challenge Congress faces in transportation is to find enough revenue, directly related to the traveling public, to produce a balanced bill. There was much room for improvement at a time when cars are getting better mileage and fuel taxes are inadequate. The interstate highway system is old and in need of repairs and modernization.

The bill takes a scattershot approach. Among its funding sources are higher taxes on inherited retirement accounts and a pay cut for federal employees to help pay for their pensions. Those might be worthy ideas, but they complicate a straightforward question: Why shouldn't users of the transportation network pay their own way?

States, including Florida, that pay more taxes than is returned from Washington were hoping for more equity.

Transit systems were anticipating less, but not to be thrown under the bus. Here in Tampa, HART bus ridership is setting records and the system is well run. It deserves reliable federal support. The traffic-clogged Orlando area is starting a commuter rail line, with Mica's support, and is already discussing possible expansions, yet Mica would make federal aid for transit highly uncertain.

By dismissing the importance of sidewalks and bike trails, Mica seems to forget he represents an area notorious for pedestrian deaths, and Tampa is no better.

If you're wondering why Congress has such trouble getting anything done, follow the progress of the House's transportation bill as it crashes and burns.