Who Wants a Big Gas Tax Hike?
- Thread starter Tom B
- Start date
This is the problem. You people get fooled so easily by the liars at the Chamber of Commerce. When was the last time they proposed something useful to American workers? Higher gas taxes are a direct shot at Trump voters who typically live in flyover states where they drive gas guzzling pickups to work a lot and use little mass transit. Why should they have to pay for boondoggle construction projects in blue coastal states, which is where the money will end up being wasted,
We do need infrastructure spending, lots of it, but we should find the money somewhere in the gargantuan federal budget. Massive defense department expenditures being poured down the rathole of Afghanistan would be a good source. Of course, that will make John McCain very angry. He doesn't want to cut and run after only 15 years of pointless waste of lives and treasure. If we just keep doing the same exact thing for another 10 or 20 years, why the light is right there at the end of the tunnel.
One of the main problems is transfer payments to the states from the Federal Government for infrastructure. The Federal Government is on the hook for 90% of the cost, with the state responsible for 10%.
In addition, there appears to be no real accountability for costs of any particular project. I have seen perfectly good roads torn up after one year of use. I have seen road projects last for many years that should have been able to be completed in weeks.
There is way too much pork in most of our nation’s infrastructure projects.
It is irrelevant how long a tax rate has been at a certain level. Unless there has been some sort of external catastrophe, a raised tax rate implies incompetence and or corruption somewhere down the line.
The solution is to have the appropiate agency oversee construction costs and have the teeth to evaluate and enforce whatever is necessary to ensure each dollar is effectively spent.
In addition, there appears to be no real accountability for costs of any particular project. I have seen perfectly good roads torn up after one year of use. I have seen road projects last for many years that should have been able to be completed in weeks.
There is way too much pork in most of our nation’s infrastructure projects.
It is irrelevant how long a tax rate has been at a certain level. Unless there has been some sort of external catastrophe, a raised tax rate implies incompetence and or corruption somewhere down the line.
The solution is to have the appropiate agency oversee construction costs and have the teeth to evaluate and enforce whatever is necessary to ensure each dollar is effectively spent.
Those of you pushing for a gas tax might not have thought all the way through it. The inflation that will result from increasing tax on gas will be rather substantial. A .25 increase will filter through almost immediately as trucking and distribution companies take large price increases that they push down to producers, manufacturers and distributors of all types of goods and raw materials. These companies will immediately take price increases on retailers who, in turn, push it down to consumers as many of them operate on razor thin margins as it is, and capacity in the trucking industry is already massively short on drivers and equipment (due to the pushing of electronic logs requirements).
The 350,000 independent truck driver contractors out there will immediately get hit with this increase in cost and will probably not be able to recover the pricing as easily as larger businesses (or as quickly). A good portion of them will likely fold.
The 350,000 independent truck driver contractors out there will immediately get hit with this increase in cost and will probably not be able to recover the pricing as easily as larger businesses (or as quickly). A good portion of them will likely fold.
We don't need to increase the gas tax. We need to spend the gas tax money on roads.
From the article:
"The federal Highway Trust Fund—where the gas tax is deposited—has a similar problem of spending on local transit and other non-road-related projects, undercutting the argument that it is simply a user fee paid by drivers.
Some 15 percent of the federal gastax is depositedstraight into the Highway Trust Fund's Mass Transit Account, which disburses money for local bus, light rail, and other mass transit services. Another $850 million or so of the trust fund is diverted to the Transportation Alternatives Fund, which goes to beautifying streets and building recreational trails.
"Do you really want to increase taxes when you have this waste going on?" Feigenbaumasks."
From the article:
"The federal Highway Trust Fund—where the gas tax is deposited—has a similar problem of spending on local transit and other non-road-related projects, undercutting the argument that it is simply a user fee paid by drivers.
Some 15 percent of the federal gastax is depositedstraight into the Highway Trust Fund's Mass Transit Account, which disburses money for local bus, light rail, and other mass transit services. Another $850 million or so of the trust fund is diverted to the Transportation Alternatives Fund, which goes to beautifying streets and building recreational trails.
"Do you really want to increase taxes when you have this waste going on?" Feigenbaumasks."
No, clearly not. The most untouchable item in most municipal budgets is mass transit. It employs a lot of people and offers enormous opportunities for patronage and side deals. Plus, support for mass transit hits a lot of virtue signaling hot buttons.
Outside of major metro areas however, much of this money is just wasted. I see tons of busses in my area of DC with one or two riders. A crowded bus might have five or six people. I can't see how that makes much sense.
Source?