Lawmaker to offer HMT fix

Lawmaker to offer HMT fix    Rep. Laura Richardson said Wednesday she plans to propose legislation late this week, or when Congress returns from next week's Memorial Day recess, to reform the Harbor Maintenance Tax.
   The HMT is assessed on ocean imports and domestic freight moves along the coast to help pay for maintaining deep-draft navigation channels. The tax is computed at 0.125 percent of the cargo's value.
   Maritime interests and shippers are frustrated that a large portion of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is unused to help mask the federal deficit in the face of ongoing needs to make ports more accessible to ever-larger cargo vessels. The tax on cargo owners brings in about $1.3 billion per year and the trust fund has close to a $5 billion surplus, but less than $800 million is appropriated per year.
   Richardson, D-Calif., told American Shipper at a small Capitol Hill reception for freight infrastructure supporters that her bill would require that the annual HMT revenue be made fully available to the Army Corps of Engineers for dredging and related maintenance work.

Richardson

   The congresswoman, whose district includes the Port of Long Beach, has made enhancing freight infrastructure one of her top priorities since coming to Congress in a special election in 2007.
   Last week she introduced the MOVEMENT Act — Making Opportunities Via Efficient and More Effective National Transportation Act of 2009 — that would raise an estimated $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion per year for freight-related infrastructure in and around land and seaport cities. Money would be allocated to state departments of transportation for port, highway or rail projects.
   The bill would assess a 0.4375 percent tax based on the value of goods and set up a separate goods movement account within the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for landside projects. Ninety percent of the money would have to be allocated to transportation improvements, 7 percent would go to mitigate the environmental impact of freight transport and 3 percent would go to cover cargo security needs.
   Goods originating in Canada or Mexico would be exempt from the tax, but imports that arrived at Mexican or Canadian ports and then entered the United States via the land border would be taxed at a rate of 0.3125 percent of the cargo value.
   Local payers would see a return on their investment because the bill requires 90 percent of expenditures to be made within a 40-mile radius of where it's raised and the remaining 10 percent to be spent within a 150-mile radius.
   Richardson said in a statement that using the existing HMT fee structure is more equitable than implementing a separate fee on cargo containers, as other members of Congress have proposed.
   “In these increasingly dire economic times where ports are considering individual fee systems from California, to Washington, to New York, it is in the best interest of the Congress to ensure that America develops a nationwide strategy that will protect our competitiveness at home and abroad while maintaining the ability to invest in a coordinated nationwide freight strategy,' she said.

Friedmann

   Her proposal is similar to one advocated since late 2007 by Peter Friedmann, a trade attorney who represents groups such as the Agriculture Transportation Coalition and the Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Associations (see 'Show us the money,' January 2008 American Shipper, pages 60-65).
   The MOVEMENT Act has been endorsed by five members of Congress who also represent ports, according to a news release from Richardson's office.
   Congress is set to debate a huge bill reauthorizing surface transportation programs and setting related policy for the next five years. The primary concern is how to pay for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades at a time when gas tax receipts are declining and obligations exceed Highway Trust Fund resources. H.R. 2355, co-sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., is an attempt to find additional revenue for freight projects.
   Richardson told the small gathering that she is pushing the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to address the need for a national freight policy to guide investment, but worries that the broader House membership is more focused at this point on issues such as health care reform, Afghanistan and energy.
   Pro-freight lawmakers say industry groups need to make the case to their colleagues about the importance of freight mobility even for districts that are not close to a port, railhead or logistics park, said Larry Ehl, acting federal relations manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation, in a brief interview at the event.
   Another key to obtaining substantial freight funding in the authorization bill is that all stakeholders reach consensus on transportation programs and how to pay for them, he said. Any group that strays from a unified front will undermine any chance for freight to finally get substantial resources, he said.

Oberstar

   Meanwhile, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee announced that 405 members of both parties have submitted their requests for high priority projects to be funded in the multiyear spending plan. The Committee has received 6,868 requests totaling $136.3 billion. It is now reviewing the projects to determine which ones will be included in the bill, which Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., hopes to introduce next month.
   The current surface transportation authorization expires on Sept. 30.
   Under new procedures instituted by the committee this year, members are required to post their requests on their office Web sites. The committee also required representatives to submit letters of support from local officials and a certification that the member has no financial interest in the project. Each project must also provide an opportunity for public comment.
   The committee has provided the Department of Transportation with a copy of the requests and has asked DOT to review them within 20 days to ensure that the projects meet program eligibility criteria.
   The minority staff of the committee is handling requests from House Republicans. They have set a deadline of May 22 for their members to post their requests online.
   Richardson's requests include $375 million to replace the aging Gerald Desmond Bridge that serves as one of the main routes connecting the Port of Long Beach to the California highway system. The bridge spans the port’s main north-south channel and isn’t high enough to allow the largest containerships in operation to pass under, nor wide enough to accommodate truck traffic from Terminal Island.
   Other projects on her wish list include:
   ' $56 million to realign the Interstate 710 freeway Shoemaker Bridge, a primary gateway for the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, and four ramps serving downtown Long Beach. The project will include truck-only lanes to facilitate cargo movement and improve safety.
   ' $80 million to design a freight corridor on I-710 between Gateway Cities and the port complex. The corridor would include four dedicated freight lane.
   ' $46 million for a truck inspection facility on the I-710 freeway to make sure port shuttle trucks are in safe operating condition.
   ' $64 million for interchanges, widening and other improvements to the I-110 highway that is a major link to the San Pedro Bay ports.
   ' $58 million for extra rail yards and track for on-dock rail facilities at the twin ports to reduce truck traffic through the cities. ' Eric Kulisch