AED Chairman Calls for Federal Highway Program Repair

Don Shilling, president of General Equipment and Supplies of Fargo, North Dakota and chairman of Associated Equipment Distributors (AED), has called for bold, decisive action to restore certainty to the federal highway program.

In testimony before the House of Representatives Small Business Committee on June 3, Shilling drew on academic research, industry insight and his own three decades of experience in the construction markets of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.

He overviewed the many ways equipment distributors – like all Americans – depend on good infrastructure and the commonsense policy needed to support it. As the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) teeters on the brink of collapse, the potential loss of more than $50 billion in annual investment threatens $2.4 billion in equipment market activity and close to 4,000 equipment dealership jobs.

For General Equipment and Supplies, the national crisis has direct impact. Shilling reported lost sales, stalled expansion plans, retracted state contracts and increased dependence on rental business, which ties up cash that could be used to hire workers and invest in the company.

“While the economic harm being caused by the uncertainty is clear, so is the fact that enacting a new fully-funded, long-term highway bill would have broad economic benefits for our industry and beyond,” Shilling said

. Citing responses to an AED member survey to gage the federal highway program’s impact, he continued: “For example, 91 percent of [AED] survey respondents said they would likely add employees if Congress passed a highway bill. Seventy-eight percent would purchase new service trucks and 91 percent would increase inventory levels … Forty-seven percent of our survey respondents, similar to my company, are likely to expand or improve existing facilities and more than a third would open new locations if Congress restores certainty to the program.” To realize that potential, Shilling called on Congress to act.

He cited AED-supported academic research indicating a small increase to the federal gas tax, followed by indexing it to inflation, would raise billions in additional revenues to support American roads and bridges over the next 20 years.

Noting that infrastructure spending is an investment that benefits the American economy will stimulating tax revenue, Shilling extolled: “All options should be on the table to fully fund the federal highway program well into the future and ensure a strong federal role in surface transportation investment.”

Category: Featured, General Update, Management