Road woes

Raleigh News & Obstructor ^ | December 5, 2008 | Editorial Staff

[NCDragon]

Americans are driving our roads into the ground, and we can't find an easy fix. Highway maintenance lags far behind the need for it, while new roads (and transit options) linger in line for funding. Construction costs keep rising, but fuel tax revenue, which pays for most of the road work, is fading.

The result is transportation gridlock. The best way out is to break the fuel-tax deadlock.

Either we raise this tax -- which in the United States is low by industrialized-world standards -- or find another source of cash for building roads and transit.

First, consider the sorry state of fuel tax funds. The U.S. Department of Transportation says gasoline taxes paid into the federal highway trust fund have fallen by $3 billion so far in fiscal 2008. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. North Carolina adds roughly 30 cents to that. State fuel-tax revenue is down 11 percent, or $317 million, from the amount budgeted in July (those figures include revenue from what amounts to a tax on car sales, which as everyone knows are off).

Congress hasn't raised the 18-cent federal tax in 15 years. Over that span inflation has eroded the buying power of fuel tax revenue, and road construction costs have outpaced general inflation. North Carolina's state tax, which used to rise with wholesale fuel prices, was capped two years ago by legislative action following a populist-style anti-tax campaign.

[NCDragon]

Whatever they choose to do, we're gonna pay more! They can't help themselves...in their minds the money, THEIR money... is out there just waiting to be plucked from our wallets.

[DB]

One huge expense is the environmental impact reports and the endless litigation around them all of which does nothing to improve our roads while consuming valuable resources.

[GoDuke]

Gov. W-Easley and soon Purdue need to leave the highway trust fund money alone and quit using it to pay off Dem. constituents.

[GoDuke]

Gov. W-Easley and soon Purdue need to leave the highway trust fund money alone and quit using it to pay off Dem. constituents.

[Judith Anne]

FTA: “Congress hasn’t raised the 18-cent federal tax in 15 years.”

Well, for crying out loud, raise it! We can’t have this! We’ve got to raise taxes on a freaking regular schedule, none of this fifteen year neglect!

/bleeding sarcasm

[Freedom4US]

Curiously absent, no mention of NAFTA - which eliminated what was left of tariffs on imports - that went, in practice, to maintain road funds.

Oh well. Look for our ‘leaders’ to sell the interstate system to Spain or something like that.

[SECURE AMERICA]

Taxes are high enough,
Its not the lack of dollars that were intended for use to maintain the roads.
Its that in the beginning when the roads were okay most State Government as Government always do could not leave the money destined for the roads alone. No they had to use it for various sundry other social issues and goverment programs to garner and keep votes. So after tyears and years of by-passing road repair when it could have been done on the cheap with money that was taxed for the purpose, we now have roads that basically need replaced with money we no longer have.
Bottom line. The State Government screwed up and no the citizens of those States get to be screwed over.

[joe fonebone]

Simple solution....so simple it is painful....repeal Bacon-Davis....

[napscoordinator]

This is crazy. What about all those tolls that we pay all over the country? Some of the toll roads that were started were to pay for the road or bridge and they have been paid for 100 times over. It is time to realign where the money goes from all the turnpikes, bridges, speeding tickets, gas tax, etc. Is anyone out there????

[Mobile Vulgus]

The “easy fix” was to stop the government from contracting out to companies that were steeped in government graft and made the roads out of substandard materials!

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

Don’t forget that registration fees also help pay for roads at a state level. Your $39 bucks for a car is a drop in the bucket, but the average tractor trailer registration is 1500-2000 bucks a years. Further, I think the articles numbers are low from what I’ve seen. Federal tax is more like 40 cents...

[sgtyork]

Also don’t forget our political leaders’ love of bicycle paths and other non-transportation related efforts upon which transportation funds are used. Politicians don’t think they get enough glory by voting for mundane infrastructure maintenance. Get a bicycle path or a downtown pedestrian mall and then the (liberal) people will know what you have done.

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

...and don’t forget the I-40 debacle.

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

NC has one of the higher gas taxes in the country. We pay a yearly registration fee, inspection fee and personal property tax on the car.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Whatever they choose to do, we're gonna pay more!"

I've got no real problem with paying gas taxes that are ACTUALLY USED TO BUILD AND REPAIR ROADS, but I damned well object to the constant theft of highway trust fund money to pay for boondoggles like "light rail" and other "mass transit" BS. If the cities and states want "mass transit"---use buses.

[Married with Children]

They need to go back to the old way (at least down here in the south) of making roads out of Concrete instead of asphalt. Highway 49 between US 61 (Coahoma County MS.) and the Mississippi River at Helena, AR. is concrete and was laid in 1959! There are countless other concrete roads down here that are traveled constantly (I-55) through north Mississippi that were laid down decades ago. They are not the smoothest but they now have machines that can Plain or Plane them down and smooth them out. Much better than lane closures and the money spent to repave every couple of years.

[zeugma]

One of the problems here in Texas, is they keep stealing gas tax money for the bottomless money pit of “education”.

[mysterio]

Cool, let's prolong our recession with more taxes.

Or they could cut spending in other areas and re-allocate funds.

[MitchellC]

The editors of the News & Observer think we ought to (surprise!) raise the gas tax.

The 21st Century panel deserves credit for trying, but it would probably be better to let the lid on the state gas tax expire (as it's scheduled to next year) and, if necessary, raise the tax. The feds could do the same.

The obvious alternatives -- toll roads, higher registration fees -- wouldn't be popular either. A one-time bond issue for roads and mass transit might pass, but construction needs are never-ending. Fuel taxes are essentially a user fee -- for the roads all of us use and for the modern transit options the future will demand.

I'd prefer we actually use the money set aside for transportation on transportation (the roads, to be more precise) and actually work on the roads that need to be worked on (like finishing and expanding the I-485 loop around Charlotte that sees daily traffic in the hundreds of thousands, instead of fast-tracking - or even building in the first place - a loop around Fayetteville that sees daily traffic in the thousands).

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail MitchellC if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[Tax-chick]

We have plenty of revenue for the roads. The thugs in Raleigh just have to stop stealing it! Or the equivalent, spending it on bridges and roads that go nowhere except to a piece of woodland that just happens - who’da thunkit? - to belong to a State Senator who was just - coincidentally - planning to sell the timber off this year ...

Buncha creeps. The Russian Solution - tanks and rocket launchers - might work in Raleigh ...