PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HOUSE RELEASE MEASURE FOR TRANSPORTATION FUNDING

This week, President Obama and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) released proposals that would raise revenue from corporate tax reform to invest in transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. President Obama, speaking at Union Depot in St. Paul, Minnesota, called for a $302 billion, four-year
surface transportation bill to follow up on the current transportation funding law (MAP- 21.which expires on Sept. 31, 2014) and to allow for greater certainty with funding at the state and local level. Of that $302 billion, preliminary indications are that $206 billion would go toward investing in highways and road safety, $72 billion for transit, $19 billion for rail programs and $9 billion for competitive funding for programs like the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants (see article above). The Administration says the bill would also stress coordination and local decision making so that “communities can better realize their vision for improved mobility.”

Chairman Camp’s measure is a full tax reform document (see article above) that touches on transportation as a small piece of tax reform. In his bill, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) would receive $126.5 billion through the repatriation of corporate tax income, enough to keep the HTF solvent for approximately eight years at current funding levels. President Obama is expected to release more information on his transportation bill next week when the President’s proposed fiscal year 2015 budget is released.

For a copy of Chairman Camp’s tax reform measure, click here.