Federal highway fund gets needed injection

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Sept. 10 that approves the transfer of $8 billion to the Federal Highway Trust Fund. Of that money, about $252 million will go to MoDOT.

MoDOT gets about 70 percent of its highway construction funding from the federal government.

The transfer, which came after a request by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, temporarily keeps the federal fund solvent, though it gets most of its revenue from an 18.7-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax and a tax of 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.

“This problem has been building for three years, but little to nothing has been done to correct it,” said MoDOT Director Pete Rahn in a news release. “In the long run, we need to find better ways and new funding mechanisms to support our nation’s vital transportation system.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar bill in July and was expected to vote on the Senate version last week. If approved, the bill would await the president’s signature.

Congress’ current five-year, $286 billion highway and mass transit spending bill expires in September 2009.