The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), a trade association founded in 1912 that represents over 130 port authorities in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America, recently announced a video named ‘Let’s Fix the Harbor Maintenance Tax’ (HMT).
According to the Association, America’s ports are denied full funding through the existing HMT and AAPA’s plan is to use that money to fix U.S. infrastructure with no additional tax burden.
“ AAPA projects the seaport industry will require about $66 billion in infrastructure investments over the next decade, including nearly $34 billion for waterside projects, like deep-draft dredging of our harbors and channels, and about $32 billion for landside projects, like road and rail connectors to our ports ,” said AAPA president and CEO, Kurt Nagle.
According to Mr Nagle, America needs a coordinated multimodal freight network that incorporates and leverages every mode of freight transportation, both on land and in the water, in order to remain internationally competitive in today’s economy.
AAPA’s solution devotes 100 percent of the funds collected from shippers for the Harbor Maintenance Tax while requiring no additional tax burden on the transportation industry or on taxpayers.