AASHTO's goal for this "off the record" discussion was to explore options to fund and finance surface transportation infrastructure at the federal, state, and local levels in the coming decade. The 2005 transportation authorization law, known as "SAFETEA-LU," expired one year ago and no replacement has been passed by Congress, largely because of concerns about how to pay for such a reauthorization.

Several different methods of finding ways to increase future transportation infrastructure funding were explored, including:

• How tolling and public/private partnerships can be facilitated;
• How states, cities, and local communities can be empowered to use a national infrastructure bank and other similar programs; and
• The advantages and disadvantages of a distance-based user fee.

An extensive set of findings and observations from the forum will be developed and published later.

Elected officials appearing at the transportation finance seminar were Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon; Rep. John Mica, R-Florida and ranking minority member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon.