Transportation. Funding Debate Focuses on Toll Road Privatization, Fuel Taxes, and Role of Federal Government

摘要

In view of the growing demands being placed on the nation's aging infrastructure, a panel of representatives from the transportation and construction industries, the public sector, and various other organizations convened on December 3 in Washington, D.C., at the Fairmont Hotel to consider how the country's surface transportation systems could and should be funded. The discussion was part of the Transportation Finance Summit, a three-day conference designed to give elected officials, transportation administrators, and practitioners an opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas about some of the transportation issues facing the nation today. The summit was hosted by the International Bridge, Tunnel, and Turnpike Association and cohosted by several other organizations, among them ASCE'S Transportation and Development Institute. The discussion was moderated by Steve Heminger, the executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which is based in Oakland, California, and is the transportation planning, coordinating, and financing agency for the San Francisco Bay Area. The seven panelists were Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, headquartered in Washington, D.C.; Ken Daley, the executive vice president of the Trans-urban Group, a toll road development and investment firm based in New York City; John Hastings, the head of U.S. infrastructure and project finance for RBC Capital Markets, also of New York City; David Horner, the deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy for the U.S. Department of Transportation; Edward Regan, the senior vice president of the transportation and infrastructure consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates, of New Haven, Connecticut; Jack L. Schenendorf, of the law firm Covington and Burling, LLP, of Washington, D.C.; and Tom R. Skancke, the president and chief operating officer of the Skancke Company, a public affairs firm based in Las Vegas.