WASHINGTON–The Concord Coalition Citizens’ Council is urging Senators
to oppose the transfer of the 4.3 cents-per gallon federal gasoline tax
enacted in 1993 from deficit reduction to the Highway Trust Funds.
Concord Executive Director Martha Phillips said the transfer,
currently included in the Senate Finance Committee’s tax reconciliation
bill, would make balancing the budget by 2002 much more difficult.
WASHINGTON–The Concord Coalition Citizens’ Council is urging Senators
to oppose the transfer of the 4.3 cents-per gallon federal gasoline tax
enacted in 1993 from deficit reduction to the Highway Trust Funds.
Concord Executive Director Martha Phillips said the transfer,
currently included in the Senate Finance Committee’s tax reconciliation
bill, would make balancing the budget by 2002 much more difficult.
"The increase in the federal fuels tax in 1993 decreased the deficit in
subsequent years," Phillips said. "If the money that this tax raises is
now put toward increasing federal transportation spending, it will
either increase annual deficits or decrease spending in other domestic
discretionary programs."
Phillips said the transfer of the gas tax to transportation
programs could add as much as $20 billion to the national debt over the
next five years. The transfer of the gas tax would also increase the
pressure on Congress to take the Highway Trust Funds off budget, a move
which Concord also opposes.
"Transportation spending should undergo the same scrutiny and
be subject to the same pressures as every other domestic discretionary
category," Phillips said. "No area of the budget, including
transportation, deserves special status when it comes to making funding
decisions."
