Congressman Clyburn sees stock fee as way to fund highways across U.S.

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The House majority whip called for tax on stock transactions as way to fund new federal highway bill, which has been on hold, during a news conference in Columbia this week to drum up support for the transportation bill.

By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published Sept. 1, 2010

A fee on stock transactions would be a good way to fund new road construction and put more people back to work, according to House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn.

Clyburn appeared at a news conference organized by business groups that want to see Congress pass a new transportation infrastructure act. They are launching a public relations campaign to increase pressure on Congress, where a six-year transportation bill has been stymied over how to pay for it.

U.S. Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.

Past bills have been financed with increases in the federal gasoline tax, but Clyburn said Tuesday that option is not politically viable this year. Instead, Clyburn wants to finance the road work with a tax of 0.25% on each stock transaction.

Clyburn sees the surcharge on transactions as appropriate because many of the major Wall Street trading firms are making big profits not long after taxpayers bailed them out.

“The taxpayers who bailed you out and put you in that position ought to be repaid,” Clyburn said at the news conference at Columbia’s Sloan Construction.

A full transportation bill would bring safer roads and help employment in the road construction industry, Clyburn said.

“The reality is our communities can’t thrive and our businesses can’t grow if they are saddled with potholes and unsafe bridges,” said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the two national groups sponsoring the effort, the Americans for Transportation Mobility and the Transportation Construction Coalition. “The best route to a better transportation system for our country lies in getting Congress to do its job and pass the months-late highway and transit bill.”

Citing data released by the Associated General Contractors of America showing that 5% of Columbia’s construction workers lost their jobs between July 2009 and 2010, Turmail said a new surface transportation bill would help boost local employment. Columbia wasn’t alone, with 276 out of 337 cities nationwide losing construction jobs over the past year.

Turmail said that one out of every four bridges nationwide are either structurally unsound or functionally obsolete. Meanwhile poor road conditions contribute to roughly half of the nation’s highway fatalities.

The last surface transportation bill expired on Sept. 30, 2009, and since then Congress has passed a series of short-term measures to ensure states continue to receive federal transportation funds.

But short term bills don’t launch long-term projects, according to Randy Snow, president of U.S. Constructors in Columbia.

His company has laid off 10% of its construction employees in 2010 because long-term projects such as bridge building and new highway construction have been on hold.

With South Carolina’s low state gas tax funding limited construction, Snow said it’s imperative for his company that federal projects be funded.