ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608160031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
ALMOST three-quarters of Virginia's bridges are in fine shape. That sounds almost good - and is, compared to some places. In New York and Washington, D.C., for example, only a third of the bridges are not deficient.
But the Virginia figure also means that 28 percent of the commonwealth's bridges are not in fine shape. That most states are no better off than Virginia, and many are worse off, simply indicates the scope of the problem nationally.
The not-so-fine bridges are those rated either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The former are not necessarily unsafe, but they are closed or limited to light vehicles because structural components have deteriorated. The latter were never intended or designed to safely handle the volume of traffic or weight of modern vehicles using them.
Rather than lower the federal gasoline tax by the 4.3 cents per gallon added in 1993, as a plan this year in Congress would have done and as GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole would do, the tax should be raised - in part to pay for bridge maintenance and upgrading, not to mention other improvements in the transportation infrastructure.
The need for infrastructure repair is stressed by highway interests, such as the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the American Automobile Association. These organizations don't want to kill the 4.3-cent surcharge, but they do want to transfer it from deficit reduction to the Highway Trust Fund. After all, the road interests argue, the gas tax is intended as a user fee to pay for just this sort of upkeep.
Well, yes and no.
The nation does need to invest a chunk of money not only on its highway system but also on better transportation in general, including mass transit. The gas tax is an appropriate source of money for such investment.
Maintaining an adequate physical infrastructure, however, is only one of several public costs imposed by America's policy of making individual vehicles the centerpiece of its transportation system, and the nation's consequent thirst for fossil fuels. A more thorough accounting would include gas-related costs like air pollution, urban sprawl and distortions to America's military and diplomatic policy created by the need to protect the flow of a resource imported from unstable parts of the world.
Revenues from the federal gas tax should help pay for some of those other costs as well. Devoting a portion of those revenues for deficit reduction is a start toward doing so. That principle should not be abandoned now.
More gas-tax money is needed for road and bridge improvements and for deficit reduction. Don't hijack the deficit-reduction dollars. Raise the gas tax.
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