Trucking group says Obama undersold infrastructure in speech

President should have provided a plan for propping up Highway Trust Fund, ATA says.    Business groups broadly issued statements of praise for President Obama’s references in Tuesday’s State of the Union about the need to invest in infrastructure and expand trade opportunities, but the American Trucking Associations said the address was devoid of substance.
   “Just mentioning infrastructure is not a solution to our nation’s critical needs, and by simply bringing the topic without details President Obama missed an opportunity to underscore the critical role our highway system plays in our economic wellbeing,” Bill Graves, the ATA’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Now is the time, with the Highway Trust Fund set to go bankrupt in May, to show vision and leadership and most importantly, find funding, to keep that from happening. The trucking industry calls on the President and Congress to end this unnecessary uncertainty by funding our nation’s infrastructure and passing a new highway bill.”
   Congress provided federal surface transportation programs a short-term extension in August before the two-year MAP-21 authorization legislation expired and included $11 billion in money diverted from other parts of the federal budget. The transfer, like several before it, was necessary because the Highway Trust Fund is not solvent solely based on declining receipts from gas and diesel taxes as people drive more fuel efficient cars and travel shorter distances. Motor fuels taxes have not been raised since 1993 and inflation has eroded nearly 40 percent of the buying power for highway, bridge and transit construction.
   A long-term surface transportation bill will be on the congressional agenda this spring, but whether it will advance is uncertain, especially as there remains little consensus on whether to raise gas taxes or find alternative forms of revenue.
   Obama’s solution, repeated in his speech, is to raise $150 million through corporate tax reform for transportation. The money would come from incentives for companies to repatriate overseas profits, which would be taxed. But doing so only provides a one-time infusion of money rather than an ongoing revenue stream.
   The ATA supports raising the gas and diesel taxes. The improving state of the economy has removed some of the reason for Obama’s opposition to such a move, but administration officials have not indicated whether he would endorse a hike if passed by Congress. 
   The White House is sticking with its GROW America initiative, which includes the corporate tax reform idea, and waiting for Congress to take the lead on the transportation bill.