Below is the latest from Randal O'Toole about Obama's transportation 
bill.  For more details and other transportation news see this link.

THE FEDS WANT TO TAKE YOUR CAR!              May 10, 2011

Randal O'Toole's transportation newsletter

OBAMA'S REAUTHORIZATION BILL IS DOA

Recently, the Obama administration leaked an "early working draft" of 
a proposed surface transportation reauthorization bill. The last time 
Congress reauthorized federal transportation spending, it dedicated 
about $53 billion for transit, some $40 billion in "flexible funds" 
that could spent on either transit or highways, and about $200 
billion for highways (not all of which was actually spent on 
highways).

Obama's 498-page proposal calls for spending $250 billion on 
highways, $120 billion on transit, $53 billion on high-speed rail, 
$27 billion on "livability" (projects like bike paths, streetcars, 
and subsidies to high-density development), and $25 billion on an 
infrastructure bank (i.e., a slush fund the administration can use to 
reward favored political interests). In short, highways get a little 
more, but non-highway programs get a lot more.

The total, $480 billion, is twice as much money as the federal 
government is likely to collect in gas taxes and other fees that fund 
surface transportation programs. To make up the difference, the bill 
mentions a "new energy tax," but provides no details about how that 
tax would work. However, it is likely that the administration 
intended that auto drivers would continue to subsidize transit users 
and begin subsidizing intercity rail riders; in other words, the 
"energy tax" would effectively double the current 18.4-cent federal 
gas tax.

The good news is that the bill is widely considered to be dead on 
arrival. As one liberal blogger wrote, "By refusing to adjust to a 
still-struggling economy, high gas prices, and a deficit-obsessed 
Congress, the president has rendered his own plan moot."