U.S. budget ?a mixed bag? for ports

U.S. budget æa mixed bagÆ for ports    The American Association of Port Authorities is calling President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2012 budget a “mixed bag” for the nation’s seaports, applauding plans for a national infrastructure bank that could fund road and rail projects in ports, but expressing concern about reduced funding for maintenance dredging.
   Kurt Nagle, AAPA’s president and chief executive officer, said bright spots in the budget for ports are a six-year, $556 billion surface transportation authorization proposal, as well as a $50 billion up-front, first-year outlay that would provide $2 billion for a National Infrastructure Investments program, similar to the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program.
   Last year, TIGER program grants funded $95 million in seaport-related infrastructure such as roads, rails, bridges, tunnels and navigable waterways that connect with ports, AAPA said.
   Among the elements proposed for the Department of Transportation budget would be a National Infrastructure Bank (I-Bank) that would focus on investments in projects of national and regional significance. AAPA said the bank would provide grants, loans or a blend of both to an expanded list of eligible multimodal projects, including highway, transit, rail, aviation, seaport and maritime initiatives.

Nagle

   But Nagle expressed concern “the expanded variety of modes in the I-Bank compared to TIGER could cause funding for seaport-related infrastructure to be overshadowed by high-profile initiatives such as transit and intercity rail. There needs to be a heightened federal focus on freight transportation.”
   Nagle complained the budget for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works program “misses the mark by failing to adequately fund the waterside infrastructure that is critically needed to restore the economic security of the nation, increase exports and create the jobs necessary for full economic recovery.”
   If approved, funding for the Corps’ Civil Works program in fiscal 2012 would drop by more than $250 million to $4.6 billion, AAPA said, including a $6 million reduction in the draw from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) to $758 million.
   “These cuts are in addition to the administration’s proposal to expand the authorized uses of the HMTF so that its receipts are also available to finance the federal share of other commercial navigation programs, such as the U.S. Coast Guard,” AAPA said.
   “AAPA is greatly disappointed with this portion of the Obama administration’s proposal,” Nagle said. “It would cut more than 5 percent from last year’s Civil Works program budget request that was already 10 percent less than what was requested in fiscal 2009.
   “The annual Harbor Maintenance Tax revenues that are collected specifically for maintenance dredging must be fully utilized, and used as intended by law for this purpose only,” said Nagle, noting that importers and domestic shippers pay about double the annual amount drawn from the HMTF for navigation maintenance.
   Ken Wells, coordinator of the Big River Coalition, which represents organizations and businesses that rely on the Mississippi River as a transportation corridor, said the proposed budget would give a “little more” money for maintenance dredging on the Mississippi River.
   “It’s a double-edge sword, because it sends a message that the administration realizes the river is important, but it does not give us enough to solve the problem at a time the price of dredging is increasing. All across the country we are not investing adequately in the infrastructure we need to be competitive,” Wells said.
   The Port of New York and New Jersey said the proposed budget includes $65 million in U.S. Army Corps of Engineer funding, which would ensure on-time completion of a project to dredge its main channels to 50 feet to accommodate larger ships by 2014 when the Panama Canal is enlarged.
   'With the harbor deepening project over 70 percent complete, this level of funding would keep this critical project on schedule and deliver immediate economic benefits to the local and national economy,” said Chris Ward, executive director of the port authority. “We encourage Congress to maintain these priorities as it considers the president's budget.'
   The Army Corps budget contains $600,000 in the investigations appropriation for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP). The Corps said the funds would “further the harbor deepening study leading to a record of decision which completes the Corps' approval process. The completed study allows the Corps to proceed to the construction phase of the harbor deepening, which has been planned for FY 2012.
   'We will continue to move forward with the project using funds provided to us,' said Col. Jeffrey M. Hall, commander of the Corp’s Savannah District. 'At this time we still expect to reach a record of decision by the end of this or early next calendar year.”
   Up the coast in Charleston, Ron Brinson, a columnist for the Charleston, S.C. Post and Courier, wrote last week that Obama’s budget “would slash by 28 percent already anemic funding for modernization of the federal coastal navigation channel system. Many strategically important projects will be slowed or stopped. And some promising new projects, like Charleston’s, simply will not take its first steps toward authorization.”
   Brinson, who served as AAPA’s president in 1979-86 and was president of the Port of New Orleans in 1986-2003, said, “deepening Charleston Harbor would eventually require a $300 million federal investment. But the ports authority plans to spend nearly twice that amount on new containership terminal capacity at Charleston — and pay for at least half the $300 million federal channel deepening costs.”
   With U.S. Customs collecting about $600 million every year at Charleston, he said Charleston and other major seaports are “cash cows.” ' Chris Dupin