NEW HAMPSHIRE AND THE U.S.
SECOND RATE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
PROBLEM
“All revenue…from registration fees, operators’ licenses, gasoline
road tolls or any other special charges or taxes with respect to the operation
of motor vehicles or the sale or consumption of motor vehicle fuels shall be
appropriated and used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and
maintenance of public highways within this state…and no part of such revenues
shall, by transfer of funds or otherwise, be diverted to any other purpose...
New Hampshire Constitution, Part Second—Form of Government Article
6-a Adopted November 1938
The meager and often low quality United States
public transportation systems clearly come to mind when traveling not just in
modern European nations or Japan but also when finding outstanding services
available in Southeast Asia nations ranging from Korea and Taiwan to
Singapore.
While some cite the United States love of the
car--and clearly that accounts for part of the scanty Amtrak network and less
than two dozen commuter rail systems nationwide--the fact of 30 state constitutions
and other law prohibitions on the use of gasoline and car taxation for anything
but highway purposes stands alone as the leading cause. Most highway oriented segregation of taxation
occurred during the 1930s when states got into the highway building business as
a means of improving their economies and when few states had sizeable tax
sources so familiar today, for examples, general income and sales taxes. Further, the federal highway programs and
policies begun with the Federal Highway Act of 1914 and its successors required
states possess administrative capacity to carry out federal highway initiatives
and receive federal funding.
Now, however, the landscape in transportation
moves through a period of historic change including the first substantial
plateau in car travel with several states to record declines this decade, the
first occurrence ever. Meanwhile
unprecedented growth in all other mode—walking and bicycling, bus, and rail
passenger--experience growth levels not seen since the car came into use a
century ago. At the same time efforts to address climate change, achieve
economic competitiveness, address health, and conserve petroleum resources all
combine to reverse decades of urban sprawl, create increased use of all modes
except the auto mode as well as an obvious need to address substantial
expenditures for modern infrastructure for he suddenly burgeoning
transportation modes. Meanwhile Americans learn, often for the first
time, the value of public transportation and the varying quality of those
services.
While the federal sharing of gas taxes to
transit and all other modes began in 1982
New Hampshire reflects all the negative
elements of the constitutional restriction of use of highway oriented fees and
taxes. The State now enjoys two
passenger rail trains with stations in the State receiving tens of millions of
dollars of support from federal and neighboring states funds--but no support
from New Hampshire coffers. The economic
revival of former manufacturing community, Dover, is credited in great part to
the now ten ear old successful Downeaster train service paid for mostly by
Maine. When a route-long celebration
occurred with the extension of the Boston to Portland Downeaster to Brunswick
all three New Hampshire stops (Dover, Durham and Exeter) hosted festive events
at the celebratory trains made its progress stop after stop towards the new
Maine stations at Freeport and Brunswick.
When it comes to bus service the two top
ridership systems in a state with three major metro areas are the low
population Lebanon-Hanover service, second, and the highest ridership bus
service, the UNH Durham campus. The
total Lebanon-Hanover service is dwarfed by commuter bus “Link” services to
four locations outside Burlington, VT or even one free shuttle operated in
Burlington linking the waterfront to its Church Street Marketplace, University
of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care.
A look at public transit, walking and bicycling
journey-to-work shows New Hampshire trailing the most rural state, Vermont, and
U.S. averages by a wide margin except for walking to work where New Hampshire
trails Vermont but leads the U.S. average:
Journey
to Work Modal Share New
Hampshire US Vermont
Motor vehicle 89.5 86.1 84.5
Public transit
0.3 5.0
1.1
Walk
3.1 2.8
6.0
Bicycle
0.3 0.6
0.7
Source: American Community Survey
We also know the transportation consumer has
radically changed. Younger driving
populations licensing is ten percent below the figure of the mid-1990s. Employers who must spend a minimum of about
$600 a year to provide an employee parking space now increasingly participate
in incentive programs for workers to quit solo driving—and workers are
responding in sizeable numbers. During the 2000-2010 commuter buses and
employer programs factored into about 900 Vermont workers a year choosing not
to ride in a car to work. During that
period while total Vermonter with jobs increased 9,000 no increase in car
travel to work occurred.
Finally, the car has enjoyed tremendous private
and public subsidy—for example, about 40% of all highway infrastructure comes from non-user sources, primarily in the
form of property taxes which support local street networks. Air pollution costs, employer parking and
retail parking support represent other major subsidies to the car.
New Hampshire faces difficult funding choices
for a transportation system moving quickly from car travel to other modes—and
fairness alone requires public support of the more sustainable forms of travel,
read just about any mode but the car and air travel.
Waiting for constitutional change in New
Hampshire may take some time as two-thirds approval is required and pro-motor vehicle
interests remain substantial.
New Hampshire can look to the first two states
to recognize the changed demands for state transportation finance—Virginia and
Massachusetts. Virginia abolished the
gas tax in February and now funds all transportation from an across –the-board
dedicated sales tax of 0.8 percent.
Massachusetts stretched traditional car oriented taxes and now is on the
cusp of using income taxes to support operation and expansion needs of all transportation
modes. New Hampshire, long a no-broad
base tax haven, must seek innovative ways to support non-car modes. One avenue might be to shift all municipal
road program expenses to motor vehicles through vehicle sales taxes, increased
gas taxes and increased sales taxes on car accessories. This “car property tax shift” would allow
imposition of a statewide property tax which would then be available for other
modal support, particularly public transit, that is, regional bus and rail
networks and intercity rail, like the Downeaster. This is just one example of tax
innovation—the point remains that finding a tax source does not prevent
addressing the need for the State to quickly address a long festering and
deepening need to provide support for non-car transportation modes.
In a general sense, any state with restrictions
on use of car-oriented revenues—and three of five states do—must address how to
fairly fund other modes with rail and bicycle/walking infrastructure and all
public transit requiring a proportional support endemic in the car mode.
