House Passes Foster Payer State Amendment To Increase Transparency In Transportation Funding

Press Release

Last night, the House of Representatives passed an amendment introduced by Congressman Bill Foster (IL-11) that would take steps to close the Payer State gap by more clearly reporting the distribution of transportation funding.

"Many states are getting out of the Federal Highway Trust Fund several times more than they pay into it, while donor states like Illinois, New York, Florida, New Jersey, California, Michigan, Colorado, and many others, are getting rooked," said Foster. "The Highway Trust Fund has simply become a vehicle for a massive redistribution of wealth from one state to another. Getting to the bottom of this is what my amendment is about."

Foster's amendment would require the Department of Transportation to calculate in each year, how much each state receives from the Highway Trust Fund. The report would also include an accounting of how much revenue each state put into the Highway Trust Fund through both the gas tax and related contributions, and contributions including funds transferred from general revenue.

"This is just one piece of the Payer State problem that is causing Illinois to lose $20-$40 billion a year by paying more than it gets back from the federal government. As long as these aggregate transfers of wealth between the states continue to occur through the federal government, we should at least have a clear picture of what is happening. Transparency in our budget policies is the first of many needed steps to end this irresponsible allocation of resources and close the payer state divide," Foster added.

Earlier this year, Foster introduced the Payer State Transparency Act to create a yearly "Payer State Report" that shows the state-by-state balance of payments to the federal government and federal funding received by states. This amendment would achieve a core piece of the Payer State Transparency Act by developing a report on state tax burdens and federal transportation spending by state.

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