Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85919
RoadWorks environmental, planning and design, and procurement reviews." There is support for outcome- oriented performance measures as an opportunity for "intergovernmental partnership, not top-down mandates." But, they say, "states, not the federal government, should establish specific performance targets that track national goals, and that performance metrics must be clear, measurable, customer- focused, and attainable." More Pressure At the same time another letter reached the committee, this one from a broad umbrella group of transportation organizations, lobby groups, think tanks and advocates. This epistle pushed the committee to "expand the flexibility and capac- ity of states and localities to address their transportation infrastructure investment challenges." The group also asks the conferees to do all they could to allow state and local bodies "to introduce tolling and user-charge systems." The group is adamant that state and local bodies should be able to raise transportation infrastructure funding pretty much any way they can. Their letter requests, "the elimi- nation of federal barriers to state and metropolitan flexibility and innova- tion, in raising investment capital and in generating revenues." The group is worried that provi- sions in the Senate version of the bill might dissuade agencies from try- ing to raise private funds for fear of losing some of their federal money. And those same provisions, they say, "would also eliminate the option to use private activity bonds (PABs) to finance leased highway projects and would substantially lengthen de- preciation timetables for long-term highway leases, making them less attractive to investors." The letter ar- gues that while a bill must protect the public interest, these provisions, "do not respect the ability of states and localities to make such determinations of the public interest on behalf of their citizens." The private group wants states to handle their own transportation infra- structure investment problems. "Old obstacles should be dismantled, and no new barriers should be erected. If states and metropolitan regions are going to be asked to do more in transportation, and if more of the funding and investment responsibili- ties are to devolve to them, it is es- sential that this legislation remove the restrictions to their capacity to innovate." Write 147 on Reader Service Card 6 June 2012 Better Roads