ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120044
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
REP. BUD SHUSTER, R-Pa., says there is a $31 billion surplus that is being used to mask deficits elsewhere.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a bill that supporters say would free more money for road building and spur the economy, but opponents argue would lead to an explosion of pork-barrel highway spending and force cuts in many popular federal programs.
The measure, sponsored by Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, would remove transportation trust funds from the nation's general fund budget.
Shuster calls his measure "The Truth in Budgeting Act" and says spending limits currently set by Congress have created a $31 billion surplus in the funds that is being used to mask deficits elsewhere in the federal budget. The money, collected as federal gasoline and airline-ticket taxes, should be used to build needed highway and airport projects, he said.
Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for Shuster's committee, said passage of the bill would mean the level of funding for the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act of 1991 could be raised from 85 percent to 100 percent, which could mean an additional $75 million annually in federal road funds for Virginia.
One of the most vocal critics of the Shuster's bill is Rep. Frank Wolf, R-McLean, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's transportation subcommittee. If the bill becomes law, Congress will face having to trim an additional $31 billion from the general-fund budget to meet its deficit reduction goals, putting in jeopardy such programs as cancer research, veterans health-care and Head Start, Wolf told the House Budget Committee on March 28.
Rather than giving the transportation funds special status, Wolf has suggested recently that it might be time to scale down the federal highway program, turning all but an oversight role back to the states. It also might be appropriate to reduce the federal fuel tax, he said, leaving it up to the states whether to continue collecting it or to find some other way to finance transportation projects.
Although business and trade associations in Virginia support Shuster's bill, Gov. George Allen's administration has sided with Wolf in his opposition to it. "We are in synch with Frank Wolf," Shirley Ybarra, Virginia's deputy secretary of transportation, said in a recent interview.
"If you take the trust funds off budget you begin to not have the honest, complete budget picture," Ybarra said. Having surpluses in the funds is not unusual, she added, because money for a project has to accumulate before the project begins.
Supporters of Shuster's bill include the Virginia Trucking Association, the American Automobile Association of Virginia, and the Virginia Road Builders Association. Their backing mirrors that of the national groups with which they are affiliated.
Passage of the bill should mean more highway money to the state, and that's important because the state can't pay for all its road needs alone, said Jan Morehead of the Road Builders Association.
Jack Lanford, president of Adams Construction Co. in Roanoke and head of a now-inactive business coalition that two years ago sought more road money for Virginia, said he supports Shuster's bill. He said he doesn't think it's fair for the government to collect the fuel taxes from the public and not use the money for its intended purpose.
President Eisenhower created the highway trust fund in 1956 to help pay for the interstate highway system. The current federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents, but 4.3 cents goes to deficit reduction under a 1993 law, rather than into the trust fund. The aviation trust fund was set up in 1970 with a 10 percent tax on airline tickets. The trust funds became part of the general fund budget in 1968.
Nelligan, the committee spokesman, said transportation spending would not get less oversight if the bill passes as some critics have suggested. The bill is not a spending bill nor does it change the way Congress appropriates money to transportation programs, he said.
Wolf, however, told the House Budget Committee that "a unified budget - which includes transportation trust funds - is essential to maintaining accountability and control over the federal budget and government spending."
Rep. L.F. Payne Jr., D-Nelson County, has signed on as a co-sponsor of Shuster's bill. Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, Western Virginia's other congressmen, are not listed as co-sponsors, and because of the congressional recess, their position on the legislation could not be determined.
The House is scheduled to vote on the legislation late Tuesday or early Wednesday, Nelligan said.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB