In The News

Fuel tax hike off the table, Shuster tells transportation roundtable

By The Trucker News Services
Posted Jun 11th 2015 10:07AM

ATLANTA — The chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says raising the federal gas tax is off the table, but he's still confident a long-term transportation bill will pass Congress this year.

Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., appearing at a transportation roundtable at Georgia Tech Tuesday, said he thinks the funding idea that has the strongest chance of making it through Congress is what some senators call "repatriation," according to an article that appeared on the website of Atlanta's national public radio station WABE.

An increase in the federal gas tax is the best way to infuse the Highway Trust Fund, most trucking stakeholders believe, including the American Trucking Associations.

"ATA still believes the fuel tax is the best and most efficient way to fund highways, but we are open to exploring some other alternatives that would provide the necessary revenue for a strong, long-term, well-funded highway bill," said Sean McNally, vice president of communications and press secretary at ATA.

"Repatriation" is the idea of lowering corporate tax rates in hopes that American companies would move their money out of offshore accounts and back to the U.S.

"I like any idea that can fund the transportation system that's passable, that's possible," Shuster told roundtable participants. "Rand Paul and Barbara Boxer are opting for a [repatriation] bill. And if you got those two from completely different parts of the ideological spectrum coming together, then something's going to happen, I believe."

Paul is a GOP senator from Kentucky, Boxer a Democratic senator from California.

The Highway Trust Fund will run out of money at the end of July.

"The story's out there across America. The American people understand there's a problem and need to invest and rebuild our transportation system," Shuster said. "In Washington, both sides of the aisle, both sides of the Capitol and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, everybody's talking about a long-term bill."

But "repatriation" has its critics.

Last summer, Thomas Barthold, chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, wrote in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch that repatriation could cost the federal government $95.8 billion in lost revenue over a 10-year period.

"A second repatriation holiday may be interpreted by firms as a signal that such holidays will become a regular part of the tax system thereby increasing the incentives to retain earnings overseas rather than repatriating those earnings and to locate more income and investment overseas," Hatch said.

The transportation roundtable included executives from UPS, Coca-Cola, the Georgia Ports Authority and three House members from Georgia, Republicans Rob Woodall, Tom Graves and Rick Allen.

The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].

theTrucker.com