ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991                   TAG: 9102130586
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BUSH UNVEILS TRANSPORTATION BILL

President Bush is pushing a $105 billion, five-year program to improve the nation's highways and mass transit systems while reshaping transportation financing.

He wants to get private enterprise involved in refurbishing roads and bridges and use tolls and user fees to help pay the costs. He also wants to give states and cities more flexibility in spending transportation dollars.

Bush and Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner were to give the proposed legislation a ceremonial send-off at the White House today. It is the first concrete effort to implement the highway and mass transit portions of the national transportation policy announced last year.

But even before the bill was formally released, many state transportation officials were expressing reservations. They fear the proposed changes would increase their costs and provide inadequate federal financing to meet transportation needs such the repair of deteriorating bridges and roads.

They expect much of the Bush bill to be rewritten by Congress.

"The concept is good," said Hal Rives, president of the Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, who also is Georgia's transportation commissioner. "It streamlines the entire program. But the funding is clearly inadequate to meet our national transportation needs. And what money is there is not fairly distributed."

The administration bill calls for a two-tier approach to highway spending.

It would designate a national highway system of roads of special significance to the federal government. These would include the 42,000-mile Interstate Highway System and other key roads for a total federal network of some 150,000 miles.

The system would be financed with a 75 percent federal contribution and a 25 percent share from states and communities. Rehabilitating the interstate system would be paid for by a 90 percent federal share.

An urban-rural highway system would be financed with a smaller 60 percent federal share with states and cities paying the rest. 


 by CNB