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Show When measures are taken to make this policy effective by affording full opportunity for the operation and employment of transportation serv- ice on the waterways, railways, and highways, in such form or combination as the user may elect and at rates reflecting in each case the true eco- nomic cost, there is every reason to expect that water commerce, along with highway, rail, and pipeline commerce, can readily bear its full share. It is generally agreed that if a policy of charg- ing tolls were adopted, the charges should be based on the mature use of the waterway, after the full volume of traffic which could reasonably be expected had developed. Exemptions should be granted to the extent necessary for the initial period of development. Tolls should not be imposed where the result would be to defeat the use of existing waterways and deprive the public of adequate return on the value of the invest- ment, either in direct dollar revenues or in stimu- lating the economic growth of the area. If any tolls were charged, they finally should be applied on all waterways. Data for the years 1940,1946, and 1948 reveal the rapid decrease in the per ton-mile cost of Federal aid to water transportation as traffic increases. Thus a study by the staff of the Board of Investigation and Research, Public Aids to Domestic Transportation, House Document No. 159, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, esti- mated that, for the year 1940, the public aid to domestic waterway transportation, expressed on an annual basis, was about 125 million dollars. This amounted to an average aid to port com- merce of 2.2 cents per ton, with a range at in- dividual harbors from less than one-half cent to more than 2j>5 per ton. For the Great Lakes, the aid amounted to one-tenth of 1 mill per ton-mile. For the principal rivers and canals, the range was from less than 1 cent to more than 2 cents per ton-mile on finished projects, with much higher costs on unfinished river programs where traffic had not developed. Table 2 on the following page, compiled in the Office of trie Chief of Engineers, shows the great decrease in Tederal costs per ton-mile on the rivers by 1946. The cost per ton-mile on the Great Lakes was still one-tenth mill; but, on the Missis- sippi River System, it had fallen to 2.6 mills; on the Gulf coast canals and rivers to 1.2 mills; on the Pacific coast to 3.1 mills, and on the Atlantic coast to 4.3 mills. The 1948 costs, as shown in appendix 5, run generally lower than 1946 be- cause of the increasing traffic in 1948; the average for the 15 principal inland waterways there listed was 1.7 mills, and for the Mississippi River System waterways, 1.8 mills. It is clear that unit costs are rapidly decreasing as the traffic more nearly approaches maturity. The answer to the question whether and when waterway tolls should be charged is, in the last analysis, one to be answered by Congress in terms of reimbursement policy. The answer must be based on consideration of both equity and the public objectives of water resources development. It must be borne in mind that a toll on trans- portation may be equivalent to a sales tax which is passed along and finally borne by consumers. In other words, it may be subject to the criticism that it reduces use of the facility which Congress has set up to stimulate business. The benefits which waterways confer on entire regions and the Nation, including enhanced property values, benefits to trade and service, to the banker, the merchant, the professional man, and the community, as well as to the direct user, must not be overlooked in seeking the proper source for reimbursement of the cost burden. Few expenditures for waterway improvement are for navigation alone. If user charges for the transportation facilities are considered to be feasible and desirable, they should be based on the cost attributable to navigation after proper apportionment is made as between navigation and all other beneficial uses, including protection of property from flood and erosion, development of electric power, irrigation, domestic and indus- trial water supply, recreation, and conservation of fish and wildlife. The Commission therefore concludes that de- cision as to feasibility of user charges on water commerce cannot be made independently, but must be worked out as part of the whole problem of reconciling and making workable our inter- related transportation and water-use policies. If rates for all forms of transportation were based 214 |
