Fighting for Arizona’s Fair Share of Highway Funding | Honoring a Fallen Hero: the Tillman-O’Callaghan Bridge | Transportation Funding in the Economic Stimulus Bill
The original federal interstate highway program, which President Eisenhower signed into law in 1956, was designed to achieve an important national objective: the creation of a surface transportation system capable of facilitating interstate commerce and supporting cross-country travel. This necessarily involved subsidizing infrastructure development in some states at the expense of others to complete a comprehensive, national transportation network.
The interstate highway system was completed some time ago, yet these cross-subsidies continue, placing some states, including Arizona, at a continuing disadvantage. Arizona is no longer the sparsely populated, slow-growing state it was at the outset of the interstate highway program. Today, it is one of the fastest growing states in the nation. Yet the formula for allocating federal gas tax revenues fails to recognize that growth and continues to provide Arizona with less than its fair share of funding for transportation infrastructure.
Fighting for Arizona’s Fair Share of Highway Funding
When I was first elected to the Senate, just 86 cents of every dollar in gas tax revenue Arizonans sent to Washington, D.C., was returned to the state for highway improvements. Today, as a result of efforts I’ve undertaken with Senator McCain, Arizona receives about seven percent more – 92 cents on the dollar. That’s a big improvement, but Arizona remains a “donor” state.
I am continuing to look for ways to ensure a more equitable distribution of highway funding. I helped win approval of a provision in a 2008 highway bill that requires the federal government to pay a greater share of the costs of certain transportation projects in states, like Arizona, which have large amounts of public lands. Under this provision, which is now law, Arizona would pay only 5.7 percent of project costs, compared to 20 percent under prior law. That results in significant savings for local governments in Arizona – and a fairer share of federal highway funds for the benefit of Arizona’s motorists. Since Congress must reauthorize the current highway law either this year or next year, there will be yet another chance to improve the funding formula.
Honoring a Fallen Hero: the Tillman-O’Callaghan Bridge
The Tillman-O’Callaghan Bridge, previously known as the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge, is scheduled to be completed in December 2010. The bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1,500 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting Arizona and Nevada. Construction of the bridge was originally authorized by Congress in 1984 to facilitate the flow of traffic on U.S. Highway 93, a major interstate and international commerce corridor. Its construction took on added urgency after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Many feared that the Hoover Dam could itself be subject to an attack given its importance to transportation, energy production and the economy as a whole. As a result, trucks and other large vehicles were banned from crossing the Hoover Dam after September 11.
I worked to secure funding for the bridge with Senators McCain and Harry Reid of Nevada, as well as secure a provision in the 2005 highway bill to name the bridge in honor of Pat Tillman, the former star of the Arizona Cardinals who valiantly gave his life in defense of freedom in Afghanistan. (The bridge will also bear the name of former Nevada Governor O’Callaghan.)
Transportation Funding in the Economic Stimulus Bill
The economic stimulus bill, which Congress approved and the President signed into law in February 2009, makes an additional $27.5 billion available to the states for highway and bridge improvements. It relies, however, on the highway-funding distribution formula that continues to shortchange Arizona. As a result, our state receives less than two percent of the bill’s funding for transportation improvements. That was one of many reasons I voted against the stimulus bill.
