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AIMD-95-95R 1 (1995-03-15)

handle is hein.gao/gaobackty0001 and id is 1 raw text is: (13 United States GAO() General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 20548 Accounting and Information Management Division B-260758 March 15, 1995 The Honorable Frank R. Wolf Chairman, Subcommittee on Transportation Committee on Appropriations U.S. House of Representatives Dear Mr. Chairman: This letter responds to your request of February 28, 1995, asking that we comment on the current budgetary treatment of transportation trust funds and the implications of removing these trust funds from any spending limit imposed by statute. Transportation trust funds--like others--present a real dilemma. On one side are the expectations created by the use of earmarked taxes, sometimes labeled user fees. Many of those who pay these taxes expect not only that they will be used for a specified purpose but implicitly also that the revenues will be spent without considering the effect on either the deficit or other federal programs. On the other side is the danger of balkanizing the budget and further limiting the Congress' ability to make trade-offs. It is not surprising that in response to this dilemma some have proposed removing the transportation trust funds from the budget and exempting them from the system of spending limits currently in place. I would like to comment on a number of issues relevant to this dilemma. PROBLEMS WITH THE UNIFIED BUDGET There are real problems with the current unified budget; two of these in particular are worth discussing: the use of trust fund surpluses to mask a general fund deficit and the inadequate identification of investment spending. If the budget is to provide a framework for decisions about the federal role and federal priorities, it should show the distinctions between types of federal programs--and it should GAO/AIMD-95-95R Transportation Trust Funds

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