March 3, 2021 – Restoring the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) must occur in a way that is “sustainable, predictable, defensible and affordable” with “some sort of road usage levy necessary” on all vehicles in the future, according to Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Speaking at the virtual 2021 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Washington Briefing, Buttigieg stressed that restoring the solvency of the HTF “is really the order of the day, especially when we have coming around the corner reauthorization of surface transportation legislation.” Yet Buttigieg noted in his remarks that while the federal tax on motor fuels has not been increased since 1993, and the HTF has not been solvent since 2008, “the gas tax is not a long-term solution [for regaining HTF solvency] anyway. I don’t think that is where energy will be in this administration, especially as there are so many different [funding] possibilities on the table like user-pay through a VMT [vehicle miles traveled] fee.”
Source: AASHTO Journal