Inefficiencies in Mass Transit

In 1986, then Senator William Proxmire (Dem-Wisconsin) presented the "Golden Fleece" award for wasteful government spending to the Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA) for "playing Santa Claus to the nation's cities" (Moore, 1986, p. 1). Proxmire was referring to the federal government's 10-year, $40 billion investment in urban transit, which he called a "spectacular flop" (Moore, 1986, p. 1). Federal funding continues to serve as the backbone for highway and mass transit projects in states and cities across the nation. However, more than a decade after Senator Proxmire criticized this system of funding as wasteful, not much appears to have changed.

The federal government subsidizes both highway and mass transit development in the U.S. The Highway Trust Fund (HTF) was created in 1956 as part of the Highway Revenue Act (Highway, 2008). The HTF collects tax revenues from excise taxes on highway motor fuel and truck-related taxes on tires, sales of trucks, and heavy vehicle use (Highway, 2008). These taxes are marked for expenditure for highway and mass transit development. In 1983, the Mass Transit Account

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