Transportation Equity Act; A Legacy for Users--Motion to Proceed
TRANSPORTATION EQUITY ACT; A LEGACY FOR USERS--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued -- (Senate - April 26, 2005)
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about simple fairness and equity in this highway bill. I commend the chairman and managers of the bill for working hard to get it to the floor. Now that it is here, I have some serious concerns with the bill, as reported, that I would like to share with my colleagues.
This bill is not fair to the States called donor States that send more of their Federal gas tax dollar and get less of it in return. Those are called donor States. We donor States--and Florida is one of them--are, once again, being cheated out of our fair share of highway dollars. Florida and roughly 20 other donor States deserve true equity, not simply what the donee States think we should be happy with. They send in a dollar of gas tax but they get more than a dollar in return. Our States, called the donor States, send in a dollar of gas tax money, and we receive less than a dollar of gas tax money in return.
In the case of Florida over the years, it has been down in the seventies. Presently--although it is scored at 90 cents--return on the dollar, in reality, when all the formulas are plugged in, is more like 87 cents. So in Florida we send a dollar of gas tax money to Washington, and we get only 87 cents of that dollar back. That is not fair.
The argument I am making is not a new argument. These are arguments that the ones who send in a dollar and get back less of their gas tax money are pitted against the donee States. Approximately 30 of the donee States get back more than a dollar of the gas tax money. So there are 20 States that get less and approximately 30 States that get more. I am tired of hearing we should be happy with what we get. I am not happy with the formula on the redistribution of the gas tax money in the highway bill.
Last year's bill that we passed in the Senate got us a lot further toward equity than this year's bill. I was disappointed, even in that bill, because although we had a target to get us from 90 percent, which is really 87 percent, return on our gas tax dollar, all the way up to 95 percent, we did not get that 95 cents back on the dollar until the very last year of the 6-year authorization of the highway bill.
Florida is in the category with other States such as Arizona, California, and Texas. We were not going to get 90 cents on the dollar, boosted to 95 cents on the dollar, until the very last of 6 years in the bill. Those States that I just mentioned, mine included, are named superdonor States. In reality, it means we are the last in line to get our fair share.
As I look back at last year's bill, I yearn for it because that is not what this bill does. This bill gets the States only to 92 cents on the dollar, and large States such as Florida, California, Texas, and Arizona only get there, again, at the end of the 6-year authorization on the highway bill.
So what am I forced to look at? I am looking at we were getting it up to 95 cents on the dollar last year, and under this bill we are only getting it up to 92 cents on the dollar. Well, this is unacceptable. There is clearly a push from both sides of the aisle to add more money to the bill. I support more money in the bill. What we passed in the Senate last year was $318 billion for highway construction authorized over a 6-year period. What is in this bill is $284 billion over a 6-year period. If we want to add more money to the bill for highways, I am certainly for that, but I support more money if there is an increase in the rate of the return for States that are giving more money than what they are getting in return.
It simply does my State and these other States no good to grow a pot of money if we are not getting our fair share of the pot.
I have been told by the 30 donee States--remember, those are the States that get more on their dollar of gas tax than they put in--I have been told by those States to look at how much money, in actual dollars, Florida will receive and how much Florida will grow in an overall percentage from the last authorization bill.
I am happy to know Florida, under the chairman's proposal, gets more dollars in this bill than it did in the last authorization, but Florida should be getting more money this time around because it is putting more money in. The number that is important, and the number that only donor States want to focus on, is the rate of return on our gas tax dollars. What percentage of Florida taxpayer dollars are actually being returned to Florida to build up our infrastructure, our highways, our bridges, and our transit? I asked that question not only for my State but for 20 other States that are not getting their fair share.
Why is this particularly sensitive to me? Look at all the folks that come to Florida and use our roads. The Orlando area is the No. 1 tourist destination in the world. We have a $50 billion-a-year tourism industry that, in large part, is as a result of our pristine and clear waters on the beaches. People go by car.
What other reasons? Florida is now one of the major growth States also because we are a destination during the twilight years of retirement. That means not only is our population growing at a rapid rate--1,000 people a day net growth in Florida--but on top of that, we get 80 million tourists a year, and they are all using those Florida roads. We desperately need those roads expanded and improved. I can take anyone to parts of Florida and show that if you think traffic jams are big in Washington, DC, they cannot hold a candle to some of the traffic jams in Florida. States such as mine are the States with the greatest need and we are the States that continue to get the least back on our highway tax dollars. Our populations are increasing by leaps and bounds, yet our highway rate of return is staying relatively the same in order to pay for the other States to invest in their roads, and those are States that are not growing like Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, and 15 other states. Florida is the third fastest growing State behind Nevada and Arizona. We will grow by 80 percent in the next 25 years, becoming the third largest State in the country behind California and Texas. Florida will bump New York into fourth place by 2011.
We have to have help on our highways. We need, but we also deserve, our fair share. States such as mine have, for the last half a century, given more than our share of highway funds. The interstate system is complete now. It has been for some time. This formula has been operating for over 50 years. It is past time that donor States get justice and equity and fair shares. We deserve to get 95 cents return on each one of our highway dollars.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
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