For years, the expense of the National Highway Trust Fund has exceeded the amount of taxes on fossil fuels and heavy vehicles that feed it. Washington legislators took a step this week to add a new source of income in the form of rates in electric vehicles and hybrids, but experts say that there are still more ways when officials could ensure the future solvency of the fund.
The Trust Fund is used to finance motorway projects and, to a lesser extent, mass traffic. Congress has not increased the gas tax that has been its main source of income since 1993 and the tax is not related to inflation. Since 2007, the Fund has received $ 724.5 billion from user taxes, but its expenses have fulfilled $ 932.2 billion, according to Jeff Davis, a senior member of the Eno Transport Center. Testifying in front of the Transportation and Infrastructure Chamber Committee on roads and traffic on April 29, he said that the gap is expected to continue to grow to the point where taxes will provide less than 50 cents per trusted bottom dollar for 2030 or 2031.
Davis attributed decay to various factors. During the first 50 years of the fund, the total vehicle of kilometers of vehicles traveled to the United States increased by 3.2% per year, maintaining the pace of inflation. But this increase has been reduced to an average of 0.5% annually since 2007. Vehicles have also become more efficient in fuel over the decades, reducing the amount of fuel taxes collected by miles. Legislators also did not want to increase gas taxes, even when expenses have exceeded revenue. In addition, inflation in construction prices has further reduced the power of the fund expenditure, and as electric vehicles become more prevalent, they threaten to help further erode the flow of income unless the legislators impose the rates of users.
“Do not make a mistake, the confidence fund did not break due to electric vehicles,” said Davis. “But the EVOLDER adoption rate controls the rate of which motor vehicle tax receipts will continue to decrease in the future.”
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a measure on April 30 to add an annual registration fee of $ 250 to EV and a $ 100 share in hybrid vehicles. The final measure increased the EV rate proposed from $ 200 and removed a proposed fee of $ 20 in other vehicles.
It is estimated that rates generate more than $ 38 billion for 10 years according to CChair Omittee Rece. Sam Graves (R-Mo.).
“Our road financing system is based on the principle that road users have to pay for their use of the system,” said Graves during the hearing. “If you do not restructure our source sources of surface transport will have serious consequences for the system of transport of our nation and the North -Americans.”
The measure will join the legislation of other committees as part of the larger reconciliation package than the spokesman of the Mike Johnson house (r-la.) He has said he wants to go through Memorial Day.
The movement has had wide support from the construction industry. Groups such as American Road & Transportation Builders Association, General Associated Contractors of America, American Society of Civil Engineers, International Union of Operating Engineers, American Association of State Highway and Transport Officials, American Concrete Pavament Association, Institut American Institute of Steel Construction, National Aschalt Pavement Association and International Workers North America signed a letter to the laws to add the rate in electric and hybrid vehicles to help all dragons pay for the national system.
“The revenue package from the road trust fund presented by President Graves would begin a vanquished conversation and bring new ideas to a problem that has been too long,” said Dave Bauer, president and CEO of the American Road & Transport Builders Association, in a statement.
However, several EV, environmental, health and other proponents groups wrote in a letter to the Committee that any new rate should enter the process of re -authorizing bipartisan surface transport instead of the budget reconciliation process. The groups also criticized the rate for EVS as “neither fair nor appropriate”.
They said that “the annual structure of rates for electric vehicles would not solve the revenue gap on the top of the road.”
The $ 250 annual fee is higher than twice as much as the average driver pays for fuel taxes from 2023, according to Davis. The average amounts of gas tax were about $ 80 for car drivers and $ 112 for collection and SUV truck drivers.
Experts who testified before the Sub -Committee on April 29 offered several suggestions for trustee income from EV rates. Carlos Braceras, executive director of the Utah Transportation Department and past president of the state -owned group of state -owned roads, said that his state launched the first carriage loading program on the country’s road. By virtue, EV drivers can pay a flat fee of $ 140 per year or can pay miles to the same amount. The program is part of a “diversified toolbox” with a inflation index fuel tax, directed rates and general fund contributions to help pay for various transport projects, he added.
“We found that various sources of income will need to be resolved,” Braceras said.
Ty Johnson, the President of Raleigh, NC contractor, Fred Smith Co., who testified on behalf of the National Aschalt Pavement Association, said that legislators could use a combination of multiple tools to fund the trustee. EV registration fees, increase in federal gas tax, the implementation of a national quota of vehicles traveled, or adding a national weight weight of the dirty vehicle.
Without actions to ensure solvency, contractors could be forced to say goodbye to workers, giving greater time and costs for future projects when the work increases again, Johnson said. On the other hand, knowing that more work is approaching allows contractors to invest, hire more employees, expand their offices and buy more equipment.
“The biggest mistake we could make is doing nothing,” said Johnson. “It’s a broken system.”
