Posted on 01/21/2008 6:52:56 PM PST by Lorianne
Anyone who drives on the highways knows we have a serious and growing traffic problem. This problem has grown from a nuisance to a major economic, environmental and energy threat that costs the country over $78 billion each year in lost time and wasted fuel.
Traffic is just as bad in areas that have low gas taxes as it is in areas that have high gas taxes. And roads are just as jammed in areas that spend a lot on transportation as they are in areas that spend a little. It's clear that our national approach to transportation isn't working. This failure is bad for families, business productivity and the environment. It also distorts real estate markets.
Three years ago Congress created two commissions to examine surface transportation policies and financing. Yesterday, one of those commissions, the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission, gave its recommendations to Congress.
Unfortunately, its report maintains a strong emphasis on status quo solutions at a time when the country needs an entirely new transportation policy. As a result, I and two other commissioners have declined to endorse the report's central recommendations. Instead, we issued a chairman's statement that's available at www.dot.gov.
Among the most troubling proposals, the report recommends an up-to 40-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax increase over the next five years, with automatic increases every year thereafter tied to inflation. This would more than triple federal fuel taxes from current levels by 2018.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I hear some states even charge a sales tax on top of the state gas tax they charge. I bet the sheeple of those states aren’t even aware of it.
The only way you’re going to fix traffic snarls is to (a) go airborn or (b) to a system like they had in Minority Report (i think). Either way transportation needs to be governed by a computer system that will take all the idiocy off the steering wheel since I believe that’s the majority of the problem after living in San Antonio and Austin for several years.
Heck, it was January-March 2006 when Gov Fraudoire of WA and her RAT cohorts in the state legislature lobbed on an additional $.20 gas tax making WA state the highest. Now, in mid-2007 she starts talking no more taxes for awhile because 2008 is a bloody election year.
The gas taxes are plenty high enough to finance all the road-building we need - if only they’d stop diverting highway tax money to every G.D. half-baked “mass transit” idea and bicycle path from Seattle to D.C.!
An election year would be a good time to bring it up. Assuming it gets any traction in the news.
FYI
California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia all include either sales tax, other percentage based tax or price adjusted tax for gasoline and diesel.
US FUEL TAX RATES BY STATE
http://www.texasgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx
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