A QUIET REVOLUTION IN TRANSPORTATION FINANCE: THE RISE OF LOCAL OPTION TRANSPORTATION TAXES

During the 20th century, the United States built a partnership for financing surface transportation infrastructure that included local, state and federal expenditures, and relied heavily on user charges to cover the costs of these investments. This paper examines recent changes in the nature of this partnership that are significant, but rarely noted. Policymakers are devolving fiscal responsibility from federal and state to local governments, by increasingly authorizing the use of local option transportation taxes. This trend substitutes general taxes for user fees and charges, and shifts decisions about major transportation projects into the electoral and legislative arena. These changes have significant implications for our understanding of the future of metropolitan transportation planning, and the ways in which we seek to reconcile transportation investments with other public policy objectives.

• Record URL:
  https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015058773691?urlappend=%3Bseq=23
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/7938948
• Corporate Authors:

  Eno Transportation Foundation

  1250 I Street, NW, Suite 750
  Washington, DC  United States  20005
• Authors:
  • Goldman, T
  • Wachs, M
• Publication Date: 2003

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 19-32
• Serial:
  • Transportation Quarterly
  • Volume: 57
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Eno Transportation Foundation
  • ISSN: 0278-9434

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Expenditures; Financing; Ground transportation; Infrastructure; Legislation; Local government; Policy making; Public participation; Public policy; Taxes; Transportation planning; User charges
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Law; Policy; Public Transportation; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00936742
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 24 2003 12:00AM