The Corruption of the Highway Trust Fund

___The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, in addition to beginning construction of the Interstate Highway System, established the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). The Fund was the result of a compromise between outside groups and congressional leaders: in exchange for maintaining a gasoline tax, user fees extracted from motorists, including gasoline taxes (then 3 cents per gallon), would be placed into a new treasury account: the Highway Trust Fund, to be modeled on the Social Security Trust Fund.

___The original law intended for the HTF to last only 13 years, but the fund has been consistently reauthorized. The 1983 Surface Transportation Act created a second account within the HTF: the Mass Transit Account. The Act also raised the gasoline tax to nine cents per gallon, with one cent going to the new transit account. The gas tax was last raised in 1993, to 18.4 cents per gallon.

___Diesel fuel is also taxed, at a rate of 24.4 cents per gallon.

General Fund Bailouts:

___According to the CBO, from 2008 to 2014:

___Outlays from the Highway Trust Fund have exceeded revenues by more than $52 billion, and outlays will exceed revenues by an estimated $167 billion over the 2015–2024 period if obligations from the fund continue at the 2014 rate.

___Since 2008, more than $54 billion has been transferred from other sources to the HTF. Most of this revenue comes from the General Fund. The May 2015 deadline is partly derived from the fact that, around this time period, the HTF will run out of money, and another transfer from the general fund will be required to keep the HTF solvent.

Diversions:

___According to the Heritage Foundation, between 25 and 30 percent of all gasoline tax revenue is diverted from general purpose highway funding to fund transit programs, even though transit only claims around 1.3% of surface transportation mileage. Another diversion specified by the current highway bill includes the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP). In FY 2014, $819.9 million is designated for eligible TAP activities, which include sidewalks, nature paths, community preservation and landscaping. Other significant line items include ferry boats, federal lands transportation and access, university research and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.

___Our "crumbling infrastructure" is by design!