Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Federal Funding

GAO: Mileage Fee Could Be More “Equitable and Efficient” Than Gas Tax

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 14, 2013 | No Comments

While governors debate raising (or eliminating) their states’ gas taxes, buzz is building about mileage-based fees, or a vehicle-miles-traveled charge. A House provision to ban U.S. DOT from studying such a fee has gone away (along with its sponsor), while Rep. Earl Blumenauer is trying to get the Treasury Department to look into how it could […]

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Seven Jiu-Jitsu Moves for Advocates to Use MAP-21 to Their Own Advantage

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 11, 2012 | No Comments

OK, truth: Raise your hand if you find federal transportation legislation intimidating and incomprehensible. I thought so. Me too. The problem, as you know, is that it’s enormously important that advocates not only understand the new transportation law, MAP-21, but that they understand it in granular detail so they can find the small opportunities buried […]

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Obama Takes Another Swing at $50 Billion in Infrastructure Spending

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 4, 2012 | No Comments

President Obama is pressing for infrastructure investment again as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations. The president kicked off talks calling for an end to the debt ceiling, the extension of middle-class tax cuts, and $50 billion in infrastructure spending — a proposal that first arose last year as part of his ultimately unsuccessful American […]

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Eight Burning Questions About Post-Election Transpo Policy and Politics

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 3, 2012 | No Comments

If I’ve learned one thing from all the meetings about transportation I’ve covered, it’s this: There is no progress without a solution on funding. Every conversation about infrastructure turns on the question of how to pay for it. As the power of the gas tax declines, can it be restored or replaced? Does the political […]

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GAO: States “Flexing” Fewer Federal Dollars to Transit

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 21, 2012 | No Comments

Supporters of livable streets may hear about the “flexibility” of transportation dollars and cringe – after all, that word often refers to the ability of states to use bike/ped money for road building. But flexibility can work both ways. Between 2007 and 2011, states devoted $5 billion in surface transportation funds — known in some […]

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Who Should Foot the Bill for Sandy’s Damage to Tracks and Train Tunnels?

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 30, 2012 | No Comments

As the East Coast surveys the damage from Hurricane Sandy, cities are still struggling to get their transit systems back up and running. In New York City, there is no firm timetable for restoring subway service after train tunnels were flooded with a surge of saltwater, in what New York MTA Chair Joe Lhota has called the […]

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