by Meagan Dorsch
We are up to NCSL's fourth issue on its top 10 issues list. Financing America's roads and infrastructure (4:54) is expected to be a hot issue in 2008 legislatures across the country.
Urgency was added to this issue after the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, Minn. last summer.
There is a feeling among lawmakers that the capacity and maintenance of roads, highways and bridges fall short of meeting the nation's transportation needs. Transportation is incredibly vital to all sectors of the economy, connecting people to jobs and allowing products to be shipped worldwide. Motor vehicles travel more than 2.9 trillion miles each year on U.S. highways.
The traditional source of much state transportation funding, the gasoline excise tax, is not keeping pace with highway use. So states are trying to come up with new ideas in order to find funding solutions. States are also trying to compensate for a projected nationwide shortfall in transportation spending. It is estimated to be $1 trillion by 2015.
Click here to learn what other issues made it on NCSL's top 10 forecast, or you can listen to our series of top 10 podcasts.
The bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, not St. Paul.
Posted by: A | January 28, 2008 at 01:52 PM
Thanks for clarifying this for us.
Posted by: Meagan Dorsch | February 01, 2008 at 10:36 AM