Dems mum on transportation in debate

The Democratic presidential candidates were mum on transportation funding issues in their first debate on Tuesday night as Congress grapples with an Oct. 29 deadline for extending the nation’s infrastructure funding. 

The five Democratic candidates made only a handful of passing references to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure in their two-and-half hour debate in Las Vegas, but none of them offered proposals for paying for those transportation projects. 

“I’ve traveled across our country over the last months listening and learning, and I’ve put forward specific plans about how we’re going to create more good-paying jobs: By investing in infrastructure and clean energy, by making it possible once again to invest in science and research, and taking the opportunity posed by climate change to grow our economy,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her introduction on Tuesday night.

{mosads}However, Clinton followed up quickly by saying, “At the center of my campaign is how we’re going to raise wages.”  

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) similarly offered only a quick nod to transportation funding in a list of other priorities he would pursue as president. 

“In my view what we need to do is create millions of jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure; raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; pay equity for women workers; and our disastrous trade policies, which have cost us millions of jobs; and make every public college and university in this country tuition-free,” he said. 

Transportation did not fare any better with candidates who are struggling to gain traction in presidential polls. 

“I want to associate myself with many of the items that the senator from Vermont mentioned, and I actually did them in our state,” former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said. “We raised the minimum wage, passed the living wage, invested more in infrastructure, went four years in a row without a penny’s increase in college tuition.

“America has many challenges confronting us — ending the perpetual wars, addressing climate change, addressing income inequality, funding education, funding infrastructure, funding healthcare, helping black Americans, helping Native Americans,” former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee added.

The lack of focus on concrete transportation funding proposals comes as Congress is struggling to come up with a way to pay for an infrastructure funding extension that is set to expire on Oct. 29. 

Transportation advocates complain that Congress has not passed an infrastructure measure that lasts longer than two years since 2005 due to a highway funding shortfall that is estimated to be $16 billion annually.

The traditional source for transportation funding is revenue that is collected by the federal gas tax, which is currently set at 18.4 cents-per-gallon. The gas tax brings about $34 billion per year, but the federal government typically spends about $50 billion annually on transportation projects.

Transportation advocates have pushed for a gas tax increase to help make up the difference, but Republicans have been reluctant to ask drivers to pay more at the pump. 

The Department of Transportation has warned that it will have to begin cutting back on payments to states and local governments for infrastructure projects in November if Congress does not reach an agreement on a highway bill extension this month.