U.S. Surface Transportation Re-authorization Bill – Update as of July 6, 2011

July 6, 2011 at 6:26 pm

Update via ITS America

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., will introduce the committee’s multi-year surface transportation reauthorization proposal tomorrow — Thursday, July 7, at 11 a.m. Eastern time. According to Chairman Mica, the bill will not only reauthorize and reform the nation’s federal highway, transit and highway safety programs, but will also make significant improvements to passenger and freight rail programs and maritime transportation policy. “This fiscally responsible, multi-modal initiative would streamline federal programs, cut red tape, better leverage our federal resources, make wise investments in our infrastructure and create needed jobs for Americans,” according to the Chairman. The rollout event is scheduled to last approximately 90 minutes.  Live video of the event will also be available at www.transportation.house.gov by clicking the “Live Webcasts” link.

Streetsblog Capitol Hill reports that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, wants transportation reauthorization bill passed soon in order to avoid the loss of 600,000 jobs in the construction and transit industries. She issued a call to action this morning, pushing for a new bill before the current extension of SAFETEA-LU expires on September 30.   Though she had initially pushed for a six-year bill, Boxer made it official that the EPW proposal is for a two-year bill that will only cover current funding levels plus inflation—about $109 billion over the two years.

At today’s press conference, Boxer focused mostly on the urgency of saving 500,000 construction sector jobs and 100,000 transit jobs, citing new Federal Highway Administration stats about the ramifications if Congress passes Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, with its 30 percent cuts to transportation. Boxer’s aides pulled out charts detailing just how many jobs would be lost in each state (See Chart here), and Boxer pointed to the over 43,000 that her home state of California would shed. Click here to read the rest on Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Note: And I found this interesting nugget on infrastructure spending on the EPW Press Release. It shows we have a long way to go to match the Chinese: According to a report by the Department of the Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisors, the United States currently spends 2 percent of GDP on infrastructure, a 50 percent decline from 1960. Meanwhile, China is spending close to 9 percent of their GDP on infrastructure.

Hyundai Vs Ford Vs GM: What Car Payment Protection Plan’s Best?

March 31, 2009 at 6:22 pm

((Source: Jalopnik)

The Carpocalypse has forced automakers to try and entice nervous buyers by offering to remove the burden of a car payment should consumers lose their jobs or worse. But which plan’s the best?

Hyundai was first on the “car payment protection” scene with their Hyundai Assurance Program, followed today by Ford and GM with their Ford Advantage and GM Total Confidence plans, respectively.

All three plans on their own are pretty confusing. Combined, all three are just a mess of different offerings of help in case you lose your job. Each offers different results for different scenarios. So, in order to make this understandable, we’ve broken down each plan and their specific option sets to allow you an opportunity to determine which will work best for you.

For starters, all three programs offer some combination of two different types of help for people facing a personal economic crisis: negative equity coverage and payment assistance. Let’s define some of these terms:

Equity: The amount of investment in an asset.

Negative Equity:This is when the amount owed on something is greater than the total value of the asset itself. In terms of cars, this means you owe more on the car than the car itself is actually worth. This is the opposite of positive equity. Positive equity would be when you have a car and you owe $2,000 but it is worth $9,000 on the used car market. In this case, you probably shouldn’t try to turn it in. Instead, if you’re smart, you’ll just sell it.

Negative Equity Coverage: This is a form of coverage that depending on the level provided, allows you to be forgiven up to a certain amount of monies still remaining in payments on the car. Each plan is different, ranging from several thousand dollars to zero.

Payment Assistance: Assuming you lose your job, the automaker will either take over payment for a certain period of time or payback the lender.

Click here to read the wonderful analysis from our friends @ Jalopnik.  

For those who are impatient and wait, the winner is Hyundai (there are a lot of caveats to this selection).  You are better advised to read the whole analysis before starting to agree with the result.  For those who are absolutely impatient and can’t wait to read the elaborate analysis here is the summary of comparision.   

REPORT: Japan’s Toyota City hurting as troubled economy, industry takes hold

March 23, 2009 at 5:37 pm

(Source: Autoblog; Photo: emrank@Flickr)

According to the Los Angeles Times, a town three hours southwest of Tokyo called Toyota City has gone from being the envy of Japan’s economy to the city with the country’s highest unemployment rate seemingly overnight. What happened? As its name implies, this town is comprised almost entirely of men and women who work for Toyota, the largest automaker in the world – the very same manufacturer that is facing its first year-long operating loss in company history.

 Because the city’s well-being rises and falls right along with the automaker that it is so dependent on, Toyota City’s finances are looking pretty dire for the upcoming year, with a projected drop in corporate tax collections of 96.3 percent. Interestingly, city officials have found an American analog with which to compare themselves: Detroit.
Click here to read the entire article.