REPORT: ISTEA

Even veteran Washington hands who know this federal-aid for transport law in tedious detail often forget what the acronym ISTEA stands for. It should stand for In-Support-of-Travesties-by-Environmental-Activists because this 1992 federal-aid transport law represents a series of measures that allow the billions of dollars paid by motorists, many of whom think of their gasoline taxes as highway user taxes, to be siphoned off for a huge variety of non-highway purposes. ISTEA is the Great Gas-tax Diverter and Mandate Medium, the way transit enthusiasts can fund and sustain projects that don’t have a snowball’s chance in the Sahara of being self-supporting, and the way the regulatory agencies of Washington DC exercise extraconstitutional power by way of mandates. If it is clean air, or the drinking age of children, or 55mph national speed limits, over none of which does the US Constitution suggest the federal government has any legitimate power, then under ISTEA, the US EPA, and other federal regulators exercise financial power over the states by threats and acts of withholding ISTEA payments to the states. Indeed the major rationale for looping money through the federal coffers is that its return to the states can be made conditional on them conforming to federal guidelines which would never stand constitutional muster if simply enacted as laws.

The American Highway Users Alliance report “Transp Enhancement Mandates: The Price We Pay” by Apogee Research reports on one small ISTEA racket — the allocation of $2.1 billion 1992-1996 for vaguely defined and loosely controlled “Enhancement” projects. The states only actually spent $1.2b of this, apparently because it took considerable administrative expertise and persistence to milk this federal teat.

$578m went to building pedestrian and bicycle paths. Now these are a terrific recreational resource and very healthful. A good thing! But noone has ever explained why highway user funds or national gas taxes should fund them. Walking and bicycling on trails in modern cities is done almost exclusively for exercise and pleasure, not serious transport. Almost no trails are used for getting from one place to another. They are home-to-home or office-to-office — for recreational outings. They get built in predominantly upper class areas because upper class people are the ones most concerned about their fit appearance, and are the people with the energy and inclination to jog and bike. Bike and walking trails are infrastructure for rich beautiful people. Nothing wrong with the rich beautiful people getting their infrastructure, just that they should pay for it. Ah we could technically toll these guys now with transponders and photograph the rearends of violators to pay for the trails??? JOKE ONLY Not serious! It wouldn’t be worth the trouble. The logical way to pay for walk/bike trails is by neighborhood levies or local county/city taxes. It is indefensible ‘pork’ that a national government funds these out of national transport monies.

Much the same is true of other ISTEA “Enhancement” projects:

• $330m went to landscaping, billboard removal and wetlands mitigation along existing roads

• $257m historic preservation

• $51m scenic lookouts

All these are of local benefit or benefit local business via the attraction to tourists and should be funded locally. Many of the projects when examined in detail have no connection to transport at all. $4m went to a cemetery rehab in Austin TX, a small part of which was spent on landscaping along the adjoining highway and a ‘travelers center’ (to fool the feds.) $0.3m of Enhancement money went toward restoration of the Capitol Rotunda in Charleston WV (politicans running from their electors?), $0.4m to a Hay Barn of Cornell Univ (hay for horsepower?), $3m for restoration of historic hotels (for travelers see!) in Greenville TN, $0.m for canal towpath restoration in Wash DC (the canal gets washed away regularly by floods and in short intervals in between the barges are for short tourist trips). The list of simple rip-offs goes on and on. Get this report to see why you can’t trust the US Govt with your gas tax $s. (Contact Amer Highway Users 202 857 1200 GoHighway@aol.com)