Bill Nelson: “I rise today to talk about simple fairness and equity in this highway bill. I commend the chairman and managers of the…”

“I rise today to talk about simple fairness and equity in this highway bill. I commend the chairman and managers of the bill for working hard to get it to the floor. Now that it is here, I have some serious concerns with the bill, as reported, that I would like to share with my colleagues. This bill is not fair to the States called donor States that send more of their Federal gas tax dollar and get less of it in return. Those are called donor States. We donor States--and Florida is one of them--are, once again, being cheated out of our fair share of highway dollars. Florida and roughly 20 other donor States deserve true equity, not simply what the donee States think we should be happy with. They send in a dollar of gas tax but they get more than a dollar in return. Our States, called the donor States, send in a dollar of gas tax money, and we receive less than a dollar of gas tax money in return. In the case of Florida over the years, it has been down in the seventies. Presently--although it is scored at 90 cents--return on the dollar, in reality, when all the formulas are plugged in, is more like 87 cents. So in Florida we send a dollar of gas tax money to Washington, and we get only 87 cents of that dollar back. That is not fair. The argument I am making is not a new argument. These are arguments that the ones who send in a dollar and get back less of their gas tax money are pitted against the donee States.…”