I had forgotten you concluded your first post with, “What needs to be done...is change the configuration of where and how the gas taxes are allocated...”
I honestly don't know how that would work; however, it sounds like some bureaucrat, or group thereof, picking and choosing who will pay what level of tax. The “devil is in the details” w/those types of solutions; however, perhaps that is not what you are proposing and I am willing to listen as to what your concept is and how it would be applied.
Given the above possible caveat, you or I might not notice a small increase in our individual gas costs; however, remember that when you raise the price of gasoline even a small amount it has a ripple effect throughout the entire economy due to the increased transportation costs for any product or material transported by motor vehicle.
Of course, regardless of the above factors, raising the tax on gasoline is still an unfair practice in that it does not address what the real factors are that create the need for additional highway construction, maintenance and repair; it merely penalizes those who have less efficient engines.
Regards,
-Geoff
That is my understanding of the current allocation process.
I don't know, but maybe allocate it by congressional district? Or some type of a regional allocation loosely based upon those district lines?
I remember when the new bridge/causeway extension to Chincoteague was being built and the whining all of us locals were subjected to from the people of NoVA and how unfair it was that we were getting so much of "their" money we were getting for it, even though the lion's share of transportation money is allocated to NoVA. They didn't want to pay for it, but they sure screamed the loudest when the old bridge would malfunction and they were stuck on the causeway. There was no sympathy for the poor woman who had to be transported across the channel by a Coast Guard cutter to meet an ambulance on the other side because the Chincoteague ambulance couldn't get across. No, it was all about their personal inconvenience.
Given the above possible caveat, you or I might not notice a small increase in our individual gas costs; however, remember that when you raise the price of gasoline even a small amount it has a ripple effect throughout the entire economy due to the increased transportation costs for any product or material transported by motor vehicle.
But the same ripple effect is caused by adding more and higher tolls. And in the case of some of the new tolls about to go in down in Hampton Roads, more will wind up in the pockets of the new "owners" of the crossings than will go toward building them. A nickel a gallon tax spread across the commonwealth will most likely generate far more revenue than will those tolls and will in no way hit anyone's pocket as badly as the $1,000 a year hit folks in Portsmouth and Norfolk are going to be hit with.
Infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, are actually a function of government that benefit us all and thus should be paid for by us all.
My husband just came in to ask me a question and about had a hissy fit about what I am advocating here because he knows how much I always oppose regressive taxes, and a gas tax is regressive, no 2 ways about it. But so is a sales tax..........