Senator Hutchison and Tolling

It was reported today in BNA's Transportation Watch that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced a bill on May 21st to ban tolls on existing federal highways. "The bill would bar states, private companies, or public-private partnerships from creating tolls on federal highway, bridges, or tunnels paid for with federal funding." Senator Hutchison argues that tolls are only a band-aid solution to meeting transportation funding needs, and that tolls exacerbate congestion and divert traffic in harmful ways. Another bill the Senator introduced last month would allow states to opt-out of the federal highway program and keep all the gas tax revenue they generate - releasing them from federal program restrictions. We see two issues here that need to be addressed: 1) a clear contradiction between the two bills the Senator has introduced, and 2) a misconception about the purpose and use of tolls.

The contradiction between these two bills is that one would give states maximum flexibility to do what they want, and the other severely limits that ability. These two approaches are virtual opposites. If Senator Hutchison believes that states know best how to deal with their transportation issues, it is unclear why she would also believe that an approach that completely limits a state's ability to toll roads would be valuable. Neither of these approaches is necessarily wrong, but when viewed as coming from the same person it is confusing (her views may be linked to issues surrounding the Trans-Texas Highway, which is a good blog topic in the future). Surely there is a middle way that recognizes a federal role in transportation - setting goals and allocating money to national purposes - yet also gives states maximum flexibility to meet those federal goals in whichever way works best for them.

This leads to the second point regarding Senator Hutchison's strong aversion to tolling. The primary concern she has is that tolling is a band-aid solution to funding. That is true. Tolling alone cannot possibly serve as the primary source of transportation funds, but in some areas it may provide useful revenue. More importantly, tolling can be an appropriate tool not just for raising funds but for actually improving the performance of the system. Smart tolling to manage congestion raises money, yes, but it also acts to make sure that traffic flows smoothly - improving commute times and letting people get where they're going faster. More broadly, tolling is one of many methods of more accurately charging users for their use of the transportation system. That is a concept that NTPP strongly supports. By paying closer to the full cost of their use, users themselves will see major improvements, especially with less traffic.

At a fundamental level, Senator Hutchison's recent proposals express two important ideas: a band-aid approach to transportation funding is not the right approach, and state flexibility in decision-making is important. The actual legislation could use refinement, however, because the policies that are targeted in the bills are not the right ones to go after.

-Daniel Lewis