Bridging The Maintenance Gap

Published: Aug 15, 2007

Some of the nation's bridges need repairs to make them safe, but an emergency-investment plan recently offered by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton would be a bad deal for Florida.

Clinton wants to spend an additional $10 billion over 10 years to help fix 60,000 deficient bridges - or about $170,000 per bridge.

To put that number in perspective, remember that Hillsborough County commissioners recently decided to spend $100 million more each year for five years on a variety of local transportation needs. Transportation officials say that even with the increased expenditures, many needs will go unmet.

A better way to encourage responsible decisions by state officials would be to let them keep more of the federal fuel taxes they collect. Otherwise, the promise of a federal bailout could encourage states to put less of their own money into maintenance.

Florida's Department of Transportation has done a better job than most in maintaining its bridges, despite a long history of sending more federal gasoline taxes to Washington than it gets in return.

Another bad idea for Florida was proposed by Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Democrat from Minnesota, site of last week's catastrophic collapse of an interstate bridge. He wants to increase the federal gasoline tax by five cents a gallon just for bridge maintenance. The tax would increase 27 percent, from 18.4 cents to 23.4 cents.

A nationwide problem is that funding for new transportation projects is increasing faster than spending to maintain the roads and bridges we already have. That trend must change. Before increasing taxes based on an unfair formula, Congress needs to get its priorities straight and consider all its public safety needs.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that repairing all the nation's deficient bridges, dams, airports and other critical infrastructure will cost $1.6 trillion over five years, or more than $1,000 per person per year.

In arguing against Oberstar's tax increase, Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican, said, "It's like owning an 80-year-old house that has serious problems with the plumbing, the heating, the foundation and a leaking roof, and saying you're going to fix the driveway."