Transportation funding debate key to strong economy

From The Beacon, April 2012

Our transportation infrastructure is in very bad shape. Not just here in Massachusetts, but in every region of the country. That’s a fact.

Ask any person on the street in any city or town. People know that our roads, bridges and railways are in poor condition, and are getting worse every year.

The need is simple to describe. Roads need to be repaved and rebuilt on a regular basis. Bridges need to be tested for safety and maintained to meet standards that protect us all. Public transit systems and roads must exist for everyone, regardless of region or economic status. This isn’t a luxury; this is essential to our economy. Businesses, individuals and families need a modern, integrated, safe and passable transportation infrastructure system with the capacity to facilitate robust commerce, connect communities, and invite manageable growth and development.

The problem is straightforward. Federal, state and local governments should be spending much more money to maintain, build, rebuild, and enhance our transportation system, but they are not.

The failure to adequately invest in roads, bridges and transit has several undesirable and counterproductive outcomes. First, a deteriorating transportation system undermines economic growth and competitiveness and drains businesses, households and governments of future income. Second, because construction inflation is significantly higher than general inflation, postponed investments become much more expensive for future taxpayers. Third, without a commitment to adequate resources, planning becomes nearly impossible because transportation professionals are forced to focus on patchwork efforts to hold together a crumbling system, addressing the most immediate emergencies.

Few states have done as well as Massachusetts in quantifying the difference between what we are spending now, and what we should be investing. The Transportation Finance Commission projected a funding gap of $15 billion to $19 billion over the next 20 years just to maintain our current state and local transportation infrastructure, not including desperately needed improvements and expansions. As a part of that projection, the commission conservatively estimated a $1 billion Chapter 90 spending shortfall, which is important to emphasize because cities and towns are responsible for 90 percent of the roads in the Commonwealth, and Chapter 90 is the only explicit source of revenue that communities have to fund their road maintenance and repair efforts.

MMA research shows that the actual annual Chapter 90 need to maintain existing roadways is well over $300 million a year. Cities and towns are extremely grateful to the Legislature and the administration for increasing Chapter 90 to its current level of $200 million, yet everyone recognizes that even at $200 million a year, municipalities are falling behind with each passing year, and our roads crumble with each passing day.

The good news is that we know the scope of the problem, and we know that we must close the gap between what we are spending and what we need to spend. Otherwise, our economy and our safety will suffer.

The bad news is that this is a bona fide crisis, and the only way to solve it will be to increase revenues, and that discussion is being kicked down the road for another day. The longer we wait, however, the worse the problem becomes.

A case in point is what’s happening at the federal level. The U.S. Senate, after adopting eight extensions of the current federal surface transportation funding law over the past several years, passed a two-year reauthorization that provides flat funding and a short-term extension of the federal gas tax. But the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives decided to take a radical approach, politicizing transportation funding for the first time in memory and carving up the current law into an unrecognizable proposal that would eliminate all gas tax funding for transit, and dramatically constrain existing surface transportation programs. This was a shrewd shift-and-shaft strategy designed to retreat from federal funding and instead transfer a massive burden onto states and localities. This radicalization of transportation funding blew up, and without the votes to move forward, the speaker now wants to pass an unprecedented ninth extension of the current law until after the November election.

We note with pride that every member of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation supports a strong and well-funded bipartisan transportation bill. The result, however, is still a stalemate and no solutions at all from Washington.

Closer to home, eastern Massachusetts has been consumed by headlines and raging protests regarding the MBTA’s $161 million budget deficit. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as the investment deficit for roads, bridges and all transit systems across the state is an order magnitude larger: more than $1 billion next year alone. Amazingly, there has been no audible discussion of the need to raise revenue to solve the funding crisis.

In Massachusetts, we know that federal funding is weakening, and current state funding is inadequate. But what is also clear is that state leaders are deferring a full public discussion of gas taxes, tolls, and other revenue options until next session.

Progress will be impossible until the citizens of Massachusetts and their public leaders have an open discussion about paying more to solve this crisis. Municipal leaders will be essential participants and stakeholders in this broad debate, calling for adequate revenues, equitable distribution across the state, and a vision to build a stronger economy for everyone.

This is a discussion that must take place now. Kicking the can down the road is not an option – the potholes will get in the way.