Chao: U.S. drivers may face more tolls to raise infrastructure funds

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao this past week raised the prospect that needed infrastructure improvements may be funded to some extent by imposing tolls on more of the nation’s roads and bridges.

It was unclear whether she intends to expand tolling on the interstate system.

The concept of granting tax credits to lure private infrastructure investment was the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to raise $1 trillion for roads and bridges.

“To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure of the United States,”Mr. Trump said in Tuesday’s address to a joint session of Congress.

He said the money would be raised “through both public and private capital, creating millions of new jobs.”

Beyond repeated calls to draw private investment, however, the White House had not reiterated its campaign promise to raise at least a portion of the money through new tolls. Even if investors attracted by the 82 percent tax credit Trump said he hopes to offer, they would expect an additional return on their money, and when it comes to roads and bridges, that cash would come from imposing new tolls.

“The federal government cannot assume the cost for all of it,” Ms. Chao said Tuesday night in a Fox News interview after Mr. Trump’s address, reiterating a point she made during her Senate confirmation hearing. She told Fox host Sean Hannity that “new and innovative ways” were necessary to find funding.

She said the president had “exciting and novel ideas about how to finance” what independent authorities estimate is the need for $3.7 trillion to meet infrastructure needs by 2020.

“Public private partnerships are a very important part of a new way of financing our roads and bridges,” she said.