A year ago, the road building industry was buzzing with hope as we were awaiting the inauguration of a new president who promised a $1 trillion plan for infrastructure. The proposal, once billed as a 100-day priority for Trump, has been placed on the backburner in Washington while the GOP tackles other issues.
At press time, House Republicans had just unveiled their tax plan which the administration says will help ensure Americans can keep more of their hard-earned money. Under the proposed plan, tax rates will be substantially reduced, loopholes disproportionately benefitting the wealthy will be eliminated, and most taxpayers will be able to file their taxes on a single page. But Republicans have a long way to go to get that passed.
In October, news reports said President Trump told members of the Senate Finance Committee that they can find funds to pay for a major infrastructure investment program out of a tax overhaul, and could perhaps combine those measures. However, Republicans have essentially shut the door on the idea of using the tax-reform bill to set aside money for infrastructure.
Trump told lawmakers he is still pushing for an infrastructure plan while aides said they continue to develop an administration proposal, raising the issue of infrastrucure at a time when some observers felt a project funding program might be pushed well into 2018.
However, Congress is still burdened with a number of major legislative goals and requirements that will most likely push ahead of infrastructure, including ongoing healthcare proposals, negotiating a broad fiscal 2018 government spending plan and trying to work out deals related to immigration to avoid a potential government shutdown when current government funding expires in this month.
With all that pressure on Congress, as well as the push to enact tax cuts, many are realizing the promised but long-delayed infrastructure proposal will be put off until 2018.
Funding Possibilities
While the primary focus of both chambers is currently to reduce tax rates and simplify the code, many groups, including the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), still believe tax reform remains the most appropriate legislative vehicle for permanently addressing the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) shortfall. All trust fund revenue enhancements over the last 30 years have come as part of a broad tax or budget measure.
Separately, The Hill reported that that the White House intends to back a 7-cent gas tax increase to pay for U.S. roads, bridges, highways and other public works, though it’s unclear if the proposal would be included in initial infrastructure legislation or if the administration will push to have it added at the committee level.
Trump signaled some openness to raising the federal gas tax earlier this year, telling Bloomberg News that it’s something he would “certainly consider.” But the idea, a politically fraught issue that lawmakers have avoided for years, quickly ran into fierce opposition from GOP lawmakers and influential conservatives.
Given the ongoing interest in Congress and President Trump’s push to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure network, ARTBA says the pressure is now on all of us to keep the heat on lawmakers. When you talk to members of your congressional delegation in coming weeks, they say the message is simple: enact a stable, growing, user-based and permanent HTF revenue stream to support surface transportation improvements.
See more insight from ARTBA, NAPA and the US Chamber of Commerce on what they think 2018 holds for the road building industry on page XX and let’s hope 2018 is finally the year of infrastructure.
