"It's going to be hard."
President Bush was referring on Monday to finding ways to pay for looming and necessary improvements to the nation's deteriorating transportation systems. Remember that Minneapolis bridge collapse? The "no new taxes" and "smaller federal government" approach has not served to maintain and expand the country's highways and mass transit in a way that can meet the demands of the growing population and the realities of a globalizing economy. The federal government had funded the interstate system through the gas tax in the 1950s and 1960s. But since 1980, our Washington politicos have refused to raise the gas tax, sending the Highway Trust Fund into the red by 2009 and leaving the states to fund road improvements most can't afford.
Many cities, regions and states, meanwhile, have short-changed mass transit alternatives to the car and encouraged suburban sprawl. The result -- most of America is car dependent, we face a trillion dollar plus infrastructure deficit, and congestion saps productivity, increases driving costs, and creates more (global warming) pollution. Been in a traffic jam lately? Noticed traffic gets worse and worse?
Mr. Bush doesn't want to consider increasing the gas tax ("no new taxes") so he says he has asked the Secretary of Transportation to study alternatives like increasing "user fees" also known as tolls and even "congestion pricing." He is right about how "hard" it will be to face up to the infrastructure issues in this country. What he means is people will need to pay a lot more for our roads, trains and subways if we are to be competitive in the future. Whether it's higher gas taxes, more tolls, various other user fees, or plain old higher general taxes (federal, state and local), taxpayers will need to shell out more. And people may need to rethink how and where they live. Driving around in a car will become much more expensive in the future. Those places with subways and light rail look better and better.
© Miller Ryan LLC 2007
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
