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Senator Murphy Offers Courageous Plan to Finally Boost Long-Term Transit and Highway Funding

By Admin

Washington, DC – Today, Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, praised Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) for his proposal to end decades of neglect of America’s surface transportation system.

“Senator Murphy has shown bold leadership and a commitment to finding solutions to the anticipated collapse of the Highway Trust Fund, which funds vital transit, highway and bridge investments.  The Murphy bill unlocks the federal gas tax, frozen for more than two decades, by raising it 12 cents over two years and finally indexing it to inflation.

“Our broken surface transportation funding mechanism is currently running on empty – we either fund it with a significant infusion or it will become insolvent and our economy will suffer.

“Investing in transportation is a no-brainer – it means shorter commutes, massive job creation and safer and more efficient public transit systems and highways that have fallen into a desperate state of disrepair.  These investments will also give businesses the modern freight infrastructure they need to remain competitive in the global economy.

“We’re also pleased that Senator Murphy seeks to make permanent the employer-provided transit tax benefit in this package.  The transit tax benefit helps working people – those who ride our transit systems, and those transit safety professional who work on the front-lines.  We have long called for permanently restoring parity between parking and transit tax benefits and strongly endorse this measure in the Murphy bill.”

“In recent years, we’ve seen too many politicians adopt a kick-the-can mentality on the hard decisions.  Senator Murphy is showing us a different way forward and we will work with him and other lawmakers that want to advance a long-term solution to our surface transportation funding crisis.”

CONTACT: Alison Omens, aomens@outreachstrategies.com, 202-507-4843

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