The Politics of Motor Fuel Taxes and Infrastructure Funds in France and the United States |
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| Authors: | James A Dunn Jr |
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| Institution: | James A. Dunn, Jr. is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Rutgers University—Camden. He has been an Alexander von Humboldt Research Feltow in European transportation policy at the Universities of Bonn and Stuttgart, and has pubkhed articles on transportation policy in numerous scholarly journals. He is the author of Miles to Go: European and American Transportation Policies (The MIT Press, 1981). |
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| Abstract: | The US. and France have adopted contrasting models of motor fuel tax and highway finance policy. Fuel tax revenues are dedicated to state and federal highway funds in America, keeping taxes quite low, but preventing them from contributing to the general treasury. French motor fuel taxes are higher and make up nearly 11 percent of the central government's general revenues, excluding social security contributions. French highway finance relies heavily on tolls. Pressure from the US. federal deficit has reduced the highway trust fund's ability to protect highway spending from budgetary competition. Political and procedural changes in Congress make it likely that the U.S.will move away from exclusive dedication of motor fuel taxes. |
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