User Fee Plan Enters 2019 Highway Funding Debate
Freight Waves cited CEI’s coalition letter led by Senior Fellow Marc Scribner:
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank, sent a letter to Congress today asking lawmakers to support a voluntary nationwide user-pay pilot program, for both cars and heavy-duty trucks – asserting that fuel taxes will become increasing regressive as vehicles become more fuel-efficient. CEI is leading a 17-member coalition supporting the program.
“As Congress begins considering the future of the Highway Trust Fund, its top priority should be restoring the longstanding users-pay/users-benefit principle,” the letter states. “Further increasing the reliance of the Highway Trust Fund on revenue streams untethered from use, as well as general fund bailouts, would not only fail to address the core fiscal challenges of the present, it would threaten the future health of America’s highways.”