Congressman John Dulaney and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood were joined by other transportation consultants and policy experts to offer their solutions to funding transportation and improving infrastructure at the 7th Annual Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) Transportation Summit.

As reported by MarylandReporter.com,

LaHood, a 36-year public servant, proposes a higher federal gas tax to fund nationwide projects, but also suggested that the solution for a broken transportation system could be something like what Virginia did when it moved from a gas tax to a wholesale sales gas tax. By taxing a percentage of wholesale, legislative leaders would not need to make controversial votes (like the Maryland General Assembly’s move last year to increase the gas tax) in order to help transportation funding keep up with inflation.

Delaney’s bipartisan bill has been one of his signature legislative priorities since being elected in 2012. He is proposing to forgo the traditional route of relying on Congress to gather funding and instead utilize low-interest bonds purchased by U.S. corporations. It also seeks to bring home some of the $2 trillion U.S. corporations have earned overseas, giving them credits as incentives to purchase bonds that would be used to build infrastructure.

“There’s no question that every company would be willing to pay something to bring their money back” if there was some incentive, Delaney said.