you're reading... 2013 Law & Public Policy, Commentaries  VMT:
The real solution to Massachusetts’ transportation
funding crisis?  Schmid_smBy Paul A. Schmid.  Download as PDF. 
In January, Governor Deval Patrick unveiled an ambitious budget
for fiscal year 2014.  The media has focused primarily on one of
the budget’s cornerstones: the Governor’s plan to spend $1
billion more per year on transportation.  However, there is an
innovative proposal buried deep within the transportation plan
that deserves more attention.  The Governor’s proposal to launch
a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) pilot program in Massachusetts is
essential to long-term sustainability of state transportation
funding.  The Governor’s plan to spend $1 billion more per year
on transportation underscores the Commonwealth’s current
transportation crisis.  Underperforming sales tax revenue and
political failure to raise the gas tax since 1991 have caused
chronic underfunding of our transportation infrastructure.  As a
result, the system is actually