New Infrastructure Woes: Gas Tax Bringing In Less Money
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07. 4.08
Because of the price of gas, Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer miles in April then they did in the same period a year earlier. Nearly 20 billion fewer miles have been driven this year than last. That is a problem for Mary Peters, the Secretary of Transportation, who is getting less gas tax money and complains "We're burning less fuel as energy costs change driving patterns, steer people toward more fuel efficient vehicles, and encourage more to use transit. Which is exactly why we need a more effective funding source than the gas tax."
What, change the fixed gas tax of 24.4 cents a gallon? How about making it proportional so that it goes up with the price of gas? How about cranking it up so that enough revenue comes in to actually fix the collapsing infrastructure? Isn't steering people to more fuel efficient vehicles and transit exactly what we should be doing? Not in America. She is probably planning to tax bicycles. Or maybe transit. ::Environmental protection
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Well, the gas tax funds infrastructure. So the fuel efficient vehicles can drive on the roads, so that the roads are there, and they have less potholes. It's not about getting extra money. Yes, we should steer people to more fuel efficient vehicles, but that doesn't mean they are using the roads any less!
Using it as a gasoline tax was silly to begin with and that's the problem.
I don't understand how the thinking like this can be SO the opposite of what this country (and world) needs.
They do drug tests before you can get a job at Wal-Mart, but they can't check world leaders for addictions before they take power?!!?!?! We need to get off this stuff. What about that natural resource they call Innovation of the American People?
Mr Bush, Addicted to Oil:
http://thekevblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/mr-bush-addicted-to-oil/
For one, the gas tax in america is not 24.4 cents, it's 18.5 cents.
Two, while everyone (especially conservatives) whine about taxes, it serves a purpose. In this case, it funds the fixing of federal roads and other infrastructure fixes.
Since most cars being bought today are fuel-efficient, the government gives tax credits for them. While that's good for the consumer, it's bad for the government.... they're losing out on billions in tax revenue. Which ultimately will lead to many people in infrastructure losing their jobs.
The gas tax has basically been stagnant since gas was $1. The amount of roads and the amount of cars on them have increased drastically since then. While increasing the gas tax itself wouldn't be desireable at this point, we need to figure out another way to bring in tax.
Increasing taxes on fuel-inefficient cars would do just that.
Every year we have to buy silly 'tabs' for our plates as an excuse for another tax.
A Good Solution:
Save the silly wasteful tabs and charge me when I get new plates every 5 years. Americans are not that stupid that they can't manage a large tax every 5 years when they get plates for their car. Sure there are tax collection issues, but right now we have tons of similar issues and MORE overhead with the smaller taxes/fees.
WEIGHT causes the most wear on the roads!
Migrate over 10 years from a GAS tax to a car WEIGHT tax and you pay when you get your new plates every 5 years. This will reward those who get lighter cars now.
Cut sales tax on new alternative cars for a decade.
Eventually cities should tax new cars to help fund mass transit (rural areas would then be exempt from such taxes and it helps to make mass transit more cost competitive for city dwellers.) Naturally, collection would be an issue here since it would push buyers to the city limits...
In most states the federal tax is less than half of the total tax. Some like California, charge sales tax on top of the federal & state taxes so they're hitting you for $0.63/gal already.
http://www.taxadmin.org/FTA/rate/motor_fl.html
Gas tax should obviously be % and fund anti-pollution programs.
For the infrastructure, vehicals should be taxed by weight-miles at registration renewal because that's a better proxy for the road use & wear. And electric semi both benefits more and causes more wear on the road than a gasoline Civic for example.
Less people driving means less wear and tear on the roads, right? (Minus weathering and earthquakes) This applies especially to heavy trucks, since they are hit hard by the increase in gas prices. I agree with keeping up roads, but this is not the time to pump hundreds of billions into an infrastructure that needs to be incrementally replaced with another system. Imagine if instead of building any new roads, we put that money into transit and bike infrastructure.
uh ... i think she was making a statement about how there's a shortfall of tax revenue for DOT issues ... I don't really see her making a value judgement on fuel, persay, mostly talking about how her dept. is getting screwed on funding.
you're reading into it too much...
What program does the government run that is fully funded and never needs any money?????
IT DOESN"T EXIST!!!! The government cannot manage money wisely, very wasteful, we should not trust them anymore. WAKE UP!
poor PR move from an already failing government...
sometimes you have to THINK before you speak, im sure she didn't mean what she said the way she said it.