public employee pension funds

The Washington Post paints an accurate picture of the surface transportation funding and financing crisis that will confront President-elect Barack Obama (below at right), Congress, and Obama’s pick to head the U.S. Department of Transportation. As roads and bridges are crumbling and cracking and transit systems struggling with rising costs and ridership, the U.S. Highway Trust Fund is in bad repair itself. Headed for bankruptcy and saved last fall only by an $8 billion raid of the U.S. Treasury’s General Fund, this highway and transit account dates to 1956 and relies on a federal gas tax that hasn’t been raised from the current level of 18.4 cents per gallon for 15 years. A high-profile federal commission has urged the tax Read More ›

The need for public-private partnerships to help rebuild the nation’s overburdened and underfunded surface transportation network is growing. Even before gas prices spiked and gas tax hike prospects dived, the Washington State Transportation Commission was calling for P3s. They did so in this January 2007 report, and then again here. The January, 2007 report states that P3s should be closely examined as a potential strategy for completing planned major projects including the SR 520 floating bridge replacement, I-5 Columbia River Crossing, the State Route 167 extension to the Port of Tacoma, I-90 Snoqualmie Pass improvements, the State Route 704 Cross-base Highway in Pierce County, improvements to the state ferry system’s busiest dock, in downtown Seattle, Colman Dock, and for other Read More ›