CONTENTS H.R. 11022, a bill to increase the loan authorization for the construction of District of Columbia highways and to increase the District of Colum- American Automobile Association: Camalier, Hon. Renah F., chairman, Committee of One Hundred on the Federal City: Adm. Neill Phillips, retired, chairman.. Craig, Peter S., chairman, roads committee. Lowe, Schuyler, Director, Department of General Administration.. Tobriner, Hon. Walter N., President, Board of Commissioners__ MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Airport Transport, Inc., Moe Lerner, president, letter dated May 28, 1964, Letter dated June 1, 1964, to Chairman McMillan, and enclosures - - - - Diversions from highway fund toward police salaries.. Exhibit I, comparison of estimated total cost of 10-year (1954–64) highway program with actual total capital outlay obligations__ Exhibit II, progress of the Federal-aid highway program, inter- Analysis of loan repayment to date.. Outstanding loan and proposed loan (table A−4). Map showing progress of District of Columbia highway system... Real estate tax revenues, impact of highway program on.. Street improvement program (tables 1, 2, 3). Tobriner, Hon. Walter N., President, Board of Commissioners: Letter dated March 20, 1964, to the Honorable John W. McCor- 94-95 District of Columbia Trucking Association, Inc., Andrew W. Johnson, Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Harold E. Wirth, chairman, Washington Representatives of Rubber and Tire Manufacturers, letter dated May 27, 1964, to Chairman Whitener.. McMillan, Hon. John L., chairman: Letter dated May 4, 1964, to President Tobriner Trailways Safeway Trails, Inc., Marvin E. Walsh, letter dated May 28, Washington Planning & Housing Association, Inc., Grosvenor Chapman, FINANCING FEDERAL-AID AND LOCAL HIGHWAYS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MONDAY, MAY 18, 1964 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE No. 6 OF THE The committee met at 10 a.m., in room 445-A, Cannon Building, Hon. Basil L. Whitener (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Whitener, Dowdy, and Horton. Also present: James T. Clark, clerk; Hayden S. Garber, counsel; Clayton Gasque, staff director; Donald Tubridy, minority clerk, and Leonard O. Hilder, investigator. Mr. WHITENER. The subcommittee will now come to order for the purpose of hearing testimony on H.R. 11022, a bill to increase the loan authorization for the construction of District of Columbia highways and to increase the District of Columbia motor vehicle fuel tax. (H.R. 11022 follows:) (H.R. 11022, 88th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To increase the loan authorization for the construction of District of Columbia highways and to increase the District of Columbia motor vehicle fuel tax Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That subsection (a) of section 402 of the Act approved May 18, 1954 (68 Stat. 110; sec. 7-133(a), D.C. Code, 1961 ed). is amended by striking "$50,250,000" and inserting in lieu thereof "$85,250,000". SEC. 2. The first section of the Act entitled “Ăn Act to provide for a tax on motor vehicle fuels sold within the District of Columbia, and for other purposes", approved April 23, 1924 (43 Stat. 106; title 47, ch. 19, D.C. Code, 1961 ed.), as amended, is amended by striking the figure "6" and inserting in lieu thereof the figure "7". SEC. 3. Section 2 of this Act shall become effective July 1, 1964. Mr. WHITENER. Also, staff memorandums on this bill will be made a part of the record. (The memorandums referred to follow:) STAFF MEMORANDUM-DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HIGHWAY FUND (H.R. 11022) PURPOSE OF THE BILL The purposes of H.R. 11022 are: (1) To increase by $35 million the existing District of Columbia borrowing authority for the District of Columbia highway construction program (from $50.25 million to $85.25 million) and (2) to increase by 1 cent the gasoline tax (from 6 cents to 7 cents). BACKGROUND The District of Columbia highway fund was established by Congress in 1938. It receives all District revenues attributable to use of public highways (gas tax, 1 tag fees, driver license fees, vault rentals, etc.) and is charged with the responsibility for paying all operating, maintenance, and construction costs for highways. Successive increases in the gasoline tax from 2 cents to 6 cents per gallon enabled the highway fund to remain solvent through fiscal 1955 despite spiraling operating and construction expenses. Since fiscal 1956, however, revenues have increased only 3 percent while operating expenses chargeable to the highway fund have increased by 70 percent. As a result highway fund revenues (1) were inadequate to cover the District's share of major capital outlay highway costs every year for the past decade, (2) are inadequate to pay for even routine street maintenance this year, and (3) will be inadequate to both service the highway fund's debt and also meet projected operating expenses within the next 3 years. DISTRICT'S POLICY The District's policy over the past decade to cover the deficit created by major capital outlays exceeding available income has included: (1) Borrowing authority for $50.2 million, obtained from Congress in 1954 on representation it was "all that is needed" to complete District's highway program. This is now virtually exhausted. Without added tax revenues or retrenchment on spending, the highway fund will be unable to service this debt beginning in fiscal 1967. (2) Repeated entreaties to the Bureau of Public Roads to add new interstate freeways to the District of Columbia whereby the Federal Government pays 90 percent of the cost, provided that highways up to "interstate freeway standards" are built. (3) Use of general fund or parking fund revenues to pay for traffic police, snow removal, or other operating expenses chargeable to the highway fund. It is understood that the use of general funds has now ceased and that use of some of the parking fund will soon end because that funds reserves are exhausted. STAFF MEMORANDUM-TRANSPORTATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Twenty years ago, an estimated $20 million was considered necessary to "complete" the city's highway network. Lured on by 50 percent Federal aid (and later 90 percent aid for "freeways"), the District's highway program grew to at least $162 million by 1951, $512 million by 1960 and $758 million by 1964, with no end of the spiral in sight. The consequences: 1. Of the District's limited land area (40,000 acres), only 35 percent (14,000 acres) remains in privately owned residential, commercial, or industrial use: the smallest tax base of any city in the United States. 2. Since 1935, 4,000 acres have been wiped off the District's tax rolls, much of it for highway construction. Today close to 30 percent of the District's land area is devoted to right-of-way for public highways. 3. Over the past 30 years, the amount of land devoted to paved roadways in the District has doubled. 4. To accommodate increased motor vehicle traffic, all streetcar service has been terminated, numerous streets widened and their trees removed, and multilane freeways built through the central city. 5. To accommodate idle motor vehicles, the number of offstreet parking spaces in downtown lots and garages has increased from less than 5,000 spaces in 1930 to over 45,000 such spaces by 1963. 6. Thousands of homes, hundreds of businesses, and scores of recreation, park, and school properties have been razed to make room for more motor vehicles. Within L'Enfant's original Federal City (the 10 square miles of central Washington), the population declined by 30 percent between 1940 and 1960. 7. With all transportation improvements geared mostly for trucks and private autos, commuters by the thousands have deserted public transit in favor of their own cars. From 1948 to 1963, the average number of weekday motor vehicles entering and leaving the District rose from 390,000 to 1 million. In the same period, the average number of daily revenue passengers on the District's transit routes declined from 730,000 to 330,000, it is reported. 8. From 1946 through 1963, there were 124,000 persons killed or injured in District traffic accidents. The accident rate has increased faster than traffic growth. From 1958 to 1963, the number of pedestrians killed or injured in traffic |