GOP seeks to redistribute highway funding

WASHINGTON -- When Congress begins debate this week on a $286 billion transportation bill, Republican leaders plan to try to change how federal highway funding is distributed to eliminate what they see as unfair regional disparities.

House majority leader Tom DeLay is leading the effort to tie how much a state receives for road projects to how much drivers in that state pay in federal gasoline taxes, a change that would likely result in a smaller share of federal highway funds for parts of the Northeast and the West, and more for the South.

"It's a tremendous unfairness that has been going on in our highway system," DeLay, a Republican from Texas, has said.

Under the plan pushed by DeLay and allies from the South and Midwest, future transportation spending would be tightly linked to the amount that individual states pay in the 18.4 cents tax on a gallon of gas. House action on the legislation is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

While studies show that Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire pay more in federal taxes of all types than they get back from Washington, highway and transit spending are two of the few parts of the federal budget in which the Northeast has historically taken in more than it pays out in taxes. That situation has long angered Southern lawmakers.

Between 1957, when Congress first imposed a federal gas tax to pay for highway construction, and 2003, Massachusetts received $1.49 for every $1 residents paid in gas taxes at the pump, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

In the same period, Rhode Island got $2.25 for every gas tax dollar it sent to Washington.

While Massachusetts is now close to an even exchange, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York still receive far more from Washington annually for roads and transit than they pay into the highway trust fund.

Some sparsely populated states, such as Alaska and North Dakota, have also received more from the trust fund than they put in.

One of the states that gets the least out of the system is DeLay's home state. Texas got only 89 cents for every dollar its residents paid in gas taxes in 2003, and since 1957 that state has paid out $5.6 billion more to the highway trust fund than it received, a bigger gap than any other state.

"States like mine and others are sending a lot of money to the federal government and getting very little back," DeLay said last year during consideration of an earlier version of the transportation bill.

Lawmakers representing regions that have benefited counter that it is fair for the Northeast to get more because transportation needs are more acute in the densely-populated region. But with a Texan in the White House and political power shifting to the South in the Republicancontrolled Congress, that funding discrepancy is increasingly vulnerable, transportation analysts say.

Michael Capuano, a Somerville Democrat who serves on the House transportation committee, said he hoped a compromise could be worked out that would avoid a floor debate on the funding issue in the House. He said that Congress would probably try to make the bill painless by "increasing the size of the pie," rather than cutting projects. That would mean adding more for states, including Florida and Georgia, that have gotten less than 95 percent of their gas taxes back.

Under current law, states are supposed to be guaranteed a return of at least 90.5 percent of their gas taxes receipts, but some do not reach that level each year. A minimum guarantee was first introduced in 1982 at 85 percent.

The transportation bill stalled on Capitol Hill last year after the White House threatened to veto what President Bush said was a bloated bill. This year lawmakers say the bill has a much greater chance of passage, since the White House and the House have reached agreement over the bill's price tag.

Focusing narrowly on transportation spending overlooks the bigger picture, which is that Northeast states send much more to Washington than they get back, said Bill Ahern, a spokesman for the National Tax Foundation in Washington.

"In general, the tax payments from the high cost-of-living states overwhelm any largesse they get," he said.

According to a report compiled by the tax foundation based on census data, Massachusetts on average gets back 78 cents for every dollar it sends to Washington, down from 97 cents when the Republicans took control of Congress in 1995.

Connecticut and New Hampshire get even less -- 65 cents and 64 cents, respectively -- while Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont get back more than they pay.

Overall, the biggest losing state is New Jersey, which gets only 57 cents back.

Charles Stewart, head of the political science department at MIT, said the move to change the highway funding formula reflected the Northeast's weakened influence on national politics.

"The fact in general is that it's a blue state," Stewart said. "Any party in power wants to bring the goodies to their part of the world."