National Center for Sustainable Transportation

A number of proposals in the past year have sought to address aspects of securing or reforming state and federal transportation funding. This white paper assembles the most prominent of these proposals and reviews them in the context of sustainable transportation: funding sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social justice. Funding recommendations include a one-time use of corporate taxes to allow states to reduce the backlog of maintenance needs. The federal gas tax would be continued and indexed to inflation. Greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets would be set for each state and states would be allowed to ‘buy down’ their gas tax as they reduce their GHG emissions. States would be given pricing and tolling authority and have the authority to implement a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax. States would also assume responsibility for all roads. Taken together, these strategies would set transportation on the path toward sustainability.

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