“While increased fuel efficiency and dropping vehicle miles traveled have certainly diminished our purchasing power, inflation has been the real killer.” Figure 4: Estimated vehicle miles travelled on all roads The best indicator is to look at this next graph (3) which shows statewide asphalt tonnage since the Great Recession. During this drop, FDOT asphalt usage stayed relatively static meaning the lion share of this reduction can be attributed to decreased spending by local agencies and private developers. That is a 62% drop in spending on asphalt in Florida! Clearly with huge cuts in spending our roads suffered. Myth 1: BUSTED! Myth 2: Inflation is the real culprit behind our eroding purchasing power and gas tax isn’t indexed, or is it? Quite a lot has been said regarding the change in driving habits which directly impacts the amount of gas tax revenue generated per year. Whether it’s attributed to Amazon, Uber or Millennials we have seen an historic shift in driving habits in the last ten years. As seen in graph 4 that drop equated to nearly 6% from the peak vehicle miles traveled in 2005. That must behind our funding woes right? Figure 6 CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS Figure 5: Three-quarter moving price trends report While increased fuel efficiency and dropping vehicle miles traveled have certainly diminished our purchasing power, inflation has been the real killer. Over the same twenty-year period that national, on-road fuel-efficiency improved by 12 percent, transportation construction costs grew by 60 percent. The result is that for every $1 that fuel-efficiency gains drained from the purchasing power of the nation’s transportation funds, inflation has taken a much larger $3.50. Although the Great Recession reversed some erosion, construction costs in Florida have trended higher since 2009. Some good news exists as graph 5 does not take into account the significant drop in crude oil last year and this year. You can get a good sense of inflation by looking at the first graph showing the erosion of the Federal Gas Tax too. Part of this myth is that since the Federal Gas Tax was never indexed, Florida is out of luck. Or is it? In fact there are State taxes that are indexed as you can see from the table (6 & 7) below. What unfortunately Figure 7 SPRING 2016 35