LaHood urges funding creativity:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the Obama administration is opposed to raising the fuel tax, but government leaders should think outside the box for highway funding. LaHood spoke last week to American Trucking Associations leaders who were gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual Winter Leadership Conference. Despite rejecting higher fuel taxes, LaHood said “something has to be done” to build up the Highway Trust Fund, noting the emergency infusion of $8 billion Congress provided last year to keep the fund solvent. LaHood called the trust fund, with its fuel taxes, “a 20th century mechanism for funding roads.” He did not elaborate on a plan to pay for roads and bridges. He said the $27.5 billion for transportation in the economic stimulus package would provide” enormous boost” for the country’s infrastructure needs, but more is needed. LaHood told ATA that the stimulus legislation would have a direct impact on trucking, especially since trucking would haul much of the material used for road and other construction funded by the $778 billion spending plan. LaHood said state DOTs are moving quickly to get projects in the pipeline.