Peters eyes private investment funding

NITL (The National Industrial Transportation League) -- Logistics Management, 4/1/2008 2:05:00 PM

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said in a March 26 Las Vegas speech that economists estimate over $400 billion is available in global funding to pay for U.S. highway, bridge and transit projects.

Peters said the U.S. Transportation Department is working to encourage private investment to help supplement the $50-plus billion a year the federal government is providing to states to help maintain, improve and expand highways, bridges and other transportation systems.“We need the political will to say no to earmarks, yes to private innovations, yes to faster approval times and yes to infrastructure projects that solve our congestion problem and help our economy,” Peters said.

The secretary said Americans have lost confidence in the way we currently fund transportation projects because they see their gas taxes going to too many projects that do too little to reduce congestion. She noted that 76 percent of Nevadans in a recent newspaper survey said they opposed increasing indirect gas taxes to pay for transportation projects.