Last August, something surprising happened in little Rhody. The state built a new 10-cent toll on the Sakonnet River Bridge, which spans the bay from Portsmouth to Tiverton. Somebody set fire to the the toll at 1 a.m. on a Saturday, just two days before it was to take effect.
The next day, hundreds arrived to protest the toll going operational. They failed.
The crowd was mostly white, middle-class folks over 40. Some declared themselves members of the Tea Party. Others were not so political and just wanted to resist a new local toll that would raise the price of traveling between Aquidneck Island and the Northeast and the West. But few, if any, news outlets tied this toll to the larger problems stewing in state and national transportation policy.
In short, national transportation policy is in crisis. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates the state of American infrastructure as a “D+.” The Highway Trust Fund is dwindling and could be in the red by 2015, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. The situation is so dire that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling for Congress to raise gasoline taxes. And as any observer knows, calling for higher taxes is not the Chamber’s usual modus operandi.
Rhode Island faces similar challenges on the state level. Gasoline taxes were increased from 31 cents per gallon to 33 cents per gallon in 2010. But they cannot keep up with even basic repair needs. Multiple studies have been commissioned to figure out how to solve the problem. Former Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 commissioned a Blue Ribbon Panel for transportation funding in 2008. The State Senate followed up with a Commission on Sustainable Transportation Funding in 2011.
Both reports revealed that the state had been borrowing substantial money just to pay the required match for federal transportation funds. Debt service crowded the budget out. Gasoline tax revenues remain volatile and do not appear to be sufficient to meet future needs.
These reports examined a variety of options to fill the funding gap beyond solving the debt service problem. Additional tolls like the Sakonnet Bridge Toll and a potential toll on I-95 were suggested. So were increased fees at the Division of Motor Vehicles — some of these have since come to fruition. Public-private partnerships were to be explored. Even finding a way to track vehicle miles traveled and issue taxes based on this was considered worthy of study.
As vehicles become more fuel-efficient and more alternative fuel and electric vehicles make their way onto roads, the gas tax will continue to provide diminishing returns. This affects both state and federal funds, and every proposed solution is new and rather complicated. From infrastructure banks to tracking devices on cars, officials are exploring every conceivable way to raise funds to deal with a lack of transportation infrastructure, except one: raising broad-based taxes of one kind or another and dedicating a set amount to transportation.
Transportation funds are dwindling. This is a fact. They are dwindling at the state and federal level. Much of our infrastructure is old and in need of repair or replacement. This is also a fact. The tragic deaths of 13 people in the 2007 collapse of the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis was a grim reminder of this fact. More than 20 percent of Rhode Island’s bridges are rated structurally deficient as of July. The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, also funded partially by the gasoline tax, continues struggling to stay solvent. Just to tread water and maintain the road and public transit service we currently have requires enormous investment.
People hate tolls. This is evidenced by the behavior at the Sakonnet Bridge this summer. People hate DMV fees too, especially new ones. Public-private partnerships are complicated and risky, and the truth is that they often come with tolls of one kind or another. And if the idea of a toll sets Rhode Islanders off, imagine the furor over installing government tracking devices on everyone’s vehicle to report vehicle miles traveled for tax purposes. So why has nobody bothered to explore the simpler option of a slight income tax increase?
We will pay more to update our transportation infrastructure. We have to. Transportation is essential for commerce. The question is not if we will pay more but rather how and when. New taxes are not popular. But it is much easier to collect a bit more in income tax than do any of the alternatives. The gas tax is volatile, and fuel efficiency erodes the revenue collected from it. Tolls are somewhat expensive to administer, slow traffic down and incite public rage. And tracking VMTs not only will be expensive to administer but also will raise serious privacy concerns.
Time is running out. We have less than five years before something must be done to shore up transportation funding both in our state and across America. How do you want to pay? It’s worth thinking about the next time you drop a dime taking your EZ Pass across the Sakonnet.
Daniel T. Carrigg GS thinks innovative policy solutions are great, but sometimes the old tried-and-true methods are best. He may be reached at daniel_carrigg@brown.edu
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