Paving the way: Congress is moving slowly toward a long-term transportation bill while state lawmakers are on a more direct route to pay for roads and bridges.

• Author: Rall, Jaime
• Position: TRANSPORTATION - Cover story

The status quo has a firm grip on the national transportation crisis. For at least three years, a lack of adequate funds to maintain--never mind improve--the nation's aging road and transit network has stymied critical work. Declining gas tax revenues exacerbate the dilemma, creating a serious shortfall of money to keep the nation's roads, bridges and other transportation systems in good shape. The American Society of Civil Engineers has given most U.S. infrastructure failing grades for several years running.

Activity in Congress earlier this year raised hopes that a federal transportation authorization spanning more than one calendar year would finally be passed. This would have allowed state transportation officials to plan with more certainty. Although both the Senate and House have now passed bills, the possibility of reconciling their differences in conference--and thus of any long-term authorization before the November elections-remains uncertain.

This leaves state lawmakers once again unsure of what will come out of Washington, D.C., and burdened with finding new ways to pull together enough money to maintain their decaying roads and bridges.

Necessity is the mother of invention, however, and this crisis has inspired the imaginations of state lawmakers. Transportation funding, finance and efficiency measures, both innovative and traditional, are being crafted to forestall a catastrophe--at least for the moment. Here are a few proposed solutions being considered nationwide.

Building Bridges With the Private Sector

States are increasingly turning to the private sector to help move big transportation projects forward. Public-private partnerships allow private companies to assume typically public responsibilities, such as financing and operating roadways--for a return on their investment. Thirty-two states and Puerto Rico now allow these partnerships for roads or bridges, and so far, at least 18 states have considered related bills in 2012 sessions.

Pennsylvania House Bill 3. This measure would allow the state, cities and other public bodies to enter into partnerships with private companies to develop, operate or finance transportation facilities. The bill--like enabling statutes in several other states--also provides a broad framework to guide how partnerships would be chosen, approved and carried out.

Sponsor: Representative Rick Geist (R). "This bill will enable Pennsylvania to partner with the private sector, and to engage its financial resources and efficiencies to help rebuild our transportation infrastructure, where feasible and beneficial to the commonwealth. While these partnerships alone cannot solve what has become an enormous transportation infrastructure funding problem, they certainly are a critical tool for us to have at our disposal."

Traveling an Old Route

Every state taxes gasoline and diesel, and those taxes are the biggest single source of highway funding in half the states. Yet, many haven't raised their gas taxes in years, even as the purchasing power of fixed-rate, cents-per-gallon taxes has plummeted in light of inflation and rising construction costs. As a result, the real value of state gas tax...