Drivers asked to test alternative to fuel tax
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Researchers are looking for 1,500 drivers in six cities, including Albuquerque, to test an on-board computer system that taxes motorists based on miles driven rather than fuel taxes paid at the pump. That mileage-based tax is being considered by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center in a $16.5 million study for the U.S. Department of Transportation to determine whether it's a viable option for paying for surface transportation, including roads and railroads, in the future.
The gas tax over the long term "is irrevocably broken and something is going to have to be done," said Jon Kuhl, a University of Iowa professor of electrical and computer engineering and principle investigator on the study. Researchers are looking for participants to install the computers on their vehicles and tell researchers what they think of the new system. The other cities are Billings, Mont., Chicago, Miami, Portland, Maine, and Wichita, Kan.
LaHood offers plan to fund highway programs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Wednesday offered a temporary finance plan that could put off an overhaul of federal highway programs -- and what is likely to be a politically sensitive vote to raise gas taxes -- until after next year's midterm congressional elections.
The plan, described by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in private meetings with lawmakers, undercuts efforts by Rep. James Oberstar, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to get a six-year, $450 billion transportation bill approved this year.
Senate approves $8 billion for highway trust fund
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Wednesday to shift $8 billion into the highway trust fund, restoring solvency to an account that is going broke and staving off what could have been crippling delays in federal aid for road and bridge projects around the country.
The voice vote came five days after Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the trust fund would be out of money by the end of the month and urged Congress to approve the $8 billion replenishment bill that the White House previously had threatened to veto.
Administration, Democrats clash on bridge repairs
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and Senate Democrats clashed Wednesday over whether the nation's bridges are in a state of disrepair severe enough to be called a safety crisis.
"We don't believe there is a crisis with regard to bridge safety in America," Federal Highway Administrator Thomas Madison Jr. told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.