By Lacie Pierson, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In considering the next federal infrastructure package, West Virginia’s U.S. senators are working to find a middle ground between a $2.3 trillion White House proposal and a $568 billion measure from Senate Republicans.
Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito each talked about their goals for the measure Thursday and Friday, with both of them saying they thought the $2.3 trillion measure was too pricey and they wanted other funding options beyond only raising the corporate income tax.
Capito, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wants to avoid any tax increases altogether, saying she wants to rely on the federal Highway Trust Fund, which is supported by taxes on gasoline, as well as other similar fees on electric and hybrid vehicles as well as user fees based on miles traveled on federal roads.
“We’re working through this,” Capito said Thursday. “We’re far apart right now, but we’re all at the table. I talked to the White House as recently as this morning, and we’re very serious about reaching a compromise.”
Manchin, a Democrat who’s become a swing vote in the U.S. Senate, on Friday said he didn’t have an exact number in mind in terms of how much he thought the government should spend on infrastructure, but he said $2.3 trillion certainly was too much…