U.S. highway fund falls short by $200 million

WASHINGTON — The federal highway trust fund will run out of money this month, requiring delays in payments to states for transportation construction projects, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said Friday.

The trust fund — a federal account used to help pay for highway and bridge projects — will run about $200 million short of its commitments for the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, Peters said.

The shortfall will mean short delays — and in some cases a temporary reduction — in payments to states for infrastructure projects the federal government has agreed to help finance.

Although the fund started with a $8.1 billion balance in October 2007, transportation officials say revenue for the past year was $8.3 billion below what the government had committed to spend.

Peters blamed the funding shortage on the high price of gasoline, which has prompted Americans to drive less. This means less fuel has been purchased, and less gasoline taxes collected for the trust fund. Americans drove 50 billion fewer miles between November and June 2008 than during the same period a year earlier.

Compounding the problem, Peters said, is federal lawmakers’ habit of loading up highway spending bills with pet projects, or “earmarks,” for their home states. The current highway spending bill has more than $24 billion in earmarks, she said.

“Americans cannot afford to have Congress play kick the can with highway funding for another year, another month, or frankly, another week,” Peters said, urging immediate passage of legislation that has $8 billion to shore up highway funds.

John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said the funding delays proposed by Peters will “have grave repercussions for the states, for hundreds of thousands of workers in the construction industry, and the driving public.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairman of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee, predicted that “if we don’t pass a solution fast, we’ll be forced to cancel critical highway construction and repair projects that ensure our roads and bridges are safe and secure.”