Since Congress created the Interstate Highway System in 1956, it has passed laws authorizing or renewing highway excise fees and federal funding for surface transportation - that is, highways and transit - out of those fees about every six years.
Ever since Oregon first created a gasoline tax to pay for roads in 1919, user fees have been a major source of funding for surface transportation.
To simplify distribution in urban areas that are served by several transit agencies, Congress could give the Department of Transportation the option of distributing funds to states or metropolitan planning organizations, which would then be passed through to the transit agencies.
Subsidiarity is the "The principle that decisions should always be taken at the lowest possible level or closest to where they will have their effect, for example in a local area rather than for a whole country." In other words, state and local governments are better equipped to know state and local transportation priorities than Congress, so Congress should not hamstring the state and local governments by telling them how to spend transportation funds.
Federal surface transportation dollars are currently distributed through at least two dozen different funds, including funds for such things as freight highways, transit-oriented developments, and transportation planning.
The multiplicity of these funds has the same effect as earmarking: incentivizing states to spend transportation money in certain ways, which often results in less-efficient spending than if the states were free to prioritize transportation spending.
The division of funds into so many different categories also increases the overhead costs to state and local governments because the Department of Transportation requires recipients to carefully document that the money they received was spent only on projects allowed under each fund.
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/principles-2020-surface-transportation-reauthorization
Ever since Oregon first created a gasoline tax to pay for roads in 1919, user fees have been a major source of funding for surface transportation.
To simplify distribution in urban areas that are served by several transit agencies, Congress could give the Department of Transportation the option of distributing funds to states or metropolitan planning organizations, which would then be passed through to the transit agencies.
Subsidiarity is the "The principle that decisions should always be taken at the lowest possible level or closest to where they will have their effect, for example in a local area rather than for a whole country." In other words, state and local governments are better equipped to know state and local transportation priorities than Congress, so Congress should not hamstring the state and local governments by telling them how to spend transportation funds.
Federal surface transportation dollars are currently distributed through at least two dozen different funds, including funds for such things as freight highways, transit-oriented developments, and transportation planning.
The multiplicity of these funds has the same effect as earmarking: incentivizing states to spend transportation money in certain ways, which often results in less-efficient spending than if the states were free to prioritize transportation spending.
The division of funds into so many different categories also increases the overhead costs to state and local governments because the Department of Transportation requires recipients to carefully document that the money they received was spent only on projects allowed under each fund.
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/principles-2020-surface-transportation-reauthorization
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