Livable Communities -- And How to Achieve Them
With work on financial reform almost complete, Senator Dodd announced this week that his remaining legislative priority is the enactment of the Livable Communities Act, S. 1619. There is a companion house bill, H.R. 4690. A hearing on the Senate bill will be held tomorrow.
It’s hard to be against livable communities and I may just be getting crotchety, but this legislation seems some combination of pointless and misguided. The legislative findings discuss traffic congestion, the percentage of oil used for transportation and CO2 generated from transportation, and the need to encourage and sustain compact development and historical town centers. And we’re going to solve this – or even make a dent – by making grants to “micropolitan” statistical areas? I don’t think so.
I agree that sprawl is a problem. I support transit-oriented development. However, there are reasons why we see development where we sit it in the United States. People still like the freedom and flexibility of personal automobile use. If we think that all that driving causes externalities – and I do – I’ve got two words for you: carbon tax. Until we make people internalize the cost of their living choices, they will continue to make those same choices and money spent on encouraging livable communities will be largely wasted. If we can’t summon the political will to tax carbon, we shouldn’t pretend that we’re solving the problem by spending money on micropolitan areas.
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Cabon tax is a red flag to the many that are disbelievers (and I am not) But the same effect can be attained by a gas tax to pay down the federal deficit. That deficit is tied to the mortgage crisis, the Wall Street bailouts, the recession, and the wars. Until the budget deficit is significantly reduced the US does not have the political or financial capital to address the carbon tax. Environmental controls go hand in hand with the financial strength of the locality or the country and their ability to pay for them. A gas tax will have to be very small incremental increases to allow the fragile economy to grow and absorb them. Talk to an eighteen wheeler and learn their income levels are now similar to late 1990s and they are working all the time, if they have a job at all.