Trucking, Highway Groups Pan Trump Infrastructure Plan

13 Feb by Vitaliy Dadalyan

Trucking, Highway Groups Pan Trump Infrastructure Plan

Trucking and highway stakeholder groups are less than thrilled with devils in the details of the gargantuan Trump infrastructure plan. Photo: U.S. Dept. of Transportation

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Reaction by trucking and highway interest lobbies to the full reveal of President Trump’s gargantuan infrastructure plan essentially mirror the views the groups expressed last month, when some of its contents were leaked and when the plan’s funding goal was ratcheted up in the State of the Union address.

Click here for our analysis of the Trump infrastructure plan

The biggest quibble—and it is one worth north of a trillion dollars— these interest groups have is with how the plan will be paid for. They are highly critical of the mere $200 billion in direct federal investment in all (not just for highways) the president contends is sufficient to stoke the spending of another $1.3 trillion or more in public (including state and local funds) and private investments to improve all of America’s infrastructure.

For example, in a statement released shortly after the plan was rolled out on Deb. 12, American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear applauded Trump for “kick-starting the debate.”

But he roundly criticized the plan as a proposal that “falls short of the President’s campaign promise to go big and bold, because it lacks the required federal investment. A proposal that relies on fake funding schemes like highway tolls and privatizing rest areas will not generate the revenue necessary to make significant infrastructure improvements.”

ATA: New Tolls a ‘Non-Starter’

Spear frankly stressed that “new tolling on existing interstates is a non-starter for our industry. Tolls are ineffective and wasteful, with as much as 33% of revenue being wasted on administrative and overhead costs.

He also called attention to the status of the Highway Trust Fund, which is supposed to hold monies to finance most …Read the rest of this story

Source:: http://www.truckinginfo.com/channel/fleet-management/news/story/2018/02/trucking-highway-groups-pan-trump-infrastructure-plan.aspx