Senate Finance Committee Set to Discuss Short Term Highway Trust Fund Fix

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow, Thursday, June 26, to consider a $9 billion Highway Trust Fund bailout package proposal from Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) which is designed to allow the Trust Fund to meet its financial obligations to December 31, 2014. This proposal fixes the short term fiscal shortfall for the Highway Trust Fund and sets the stage for a long-term fix following November elections. The only transportation user tax in the proposal is an increase in the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax on trucks with a gross weight over 55,000 pounds. For an 80,000-pound truck, the HVUT would rise from the current $550 per year to $650 per year. The maximum for trucks over 97,000 pounds that is currently capped at $550 would double to $1,100. The HVUT been unchanged since 1984. The increase would raise an estimated $1.35 billion over 10 years and would be in effect starting June 30, 2014.

The remaining $7.6 billion would come from tax compliance changes and loophole closing by making changes in mortgage reporting, clarification to a six-year statute of limitations in case of overstatement bias, revocation of passports in case of unpaid taxes and modification for pension distributions. It is not yet known if his package of offsets will have the support of Finance GOP members.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Fox at efox@nrmca.org.