Posted on 02/19/2019 8:13:44 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
There are a lot of big lies in politics, but raising gas taxes to "fix" "crumbling" roads and bridges has to be one of the biggest.
Oh, dear. Pennsylvania will soon be losing its distinction as the state with the highest gas tax in the nation, courtesy of the Rats’n’Rinos who run the state.
This summer, unhappy with 2nd place, Kalifornia is going to take the lead when they boost their gas tax again.
Now Ohio is back in the race, but they will have to try harder. Even with this increase, Kalifornia, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington, Hawaii, Indiana, and Michigan will still be ahead.
We live 1/2 mile from one of the main arterial highways in our small SE Ohio town, and the roadbed of this highway has developed twin ruts due to heavy vehicle compaction. The local cement plant with it’s daily disbursement of loaded trucks is only part of the problem. The oil and gas industry is the icing on the cake. Adjacent states have contracted to dump brine wastewater from their own sites into Ohio wells drilled specifically for the disposal of water that is a typical residue from general oil and gas well development (Ohio well maintenance included). These brine trucks are on the highway day and night, driving to and from disposal wells in our area. Eventually the roadbeds will fail, the existing Ohio gas tax won’t cover the repairs that will be needed to sustain the brine truck cash flow into the Governor’s pocket, and the solution will be to hit the taxpayers up with a gas tax increase to “Maintain the Infrastructure”. /rant mode = off/
Trucks ruin roads, not cars. Tax trucks the we can properly use our rail system and reduce the number of dangerous/annoying 18 wheelers.
In 1985 I arrived in Dayton. The S-curve on the I-75 going to Cleveland was under construction.
I left Dayton in 2016.
The S-curve on the I-75 was still . . . under construction.
Over the years we vacationed in AZ for months at a time. We would watch entire freeways-—I’m talking belts that circle Phoenix-—go up in a couple of years. Now they are planning a new freeway bypass to go behind South Mountain to allow traffic to LA to avoid the downtown PHX area.
I will bet that is finished before I-75 is done.
The Pennsylvania mileage tracking system is primitive at best.
The people who are pushing mileage-based taxation want to streamline the process by automating the data collection via GPS.
Once that capability is in place, they can track much more than miles traveled. They can also know speed, time of day, destinations, and they can infer the purpose of your travel and who else might share your destination.
Do you attend certain political rallies? Do you spend a lot of time at gun ranges? Do you go to bars? Do you hang out with undesirable people?
I would rather forego all that in favor of a simple per-gallon tax, even if it lets EVs and hybrids off the hook.
I-75 does not go to Cleveland.
It would be continuous monitoring, not once annual, as i understand it, meaning the govt would have direct access to the vehicle’s location data via GPS. No thanks...
OH has plenty of highways, state roads, and local roads. Keeping the roads and bridges that already exist in repair is good. Building more highways instead of repairing them is bad.
Ohio gas will STILL be much cheaper than PA.
You have a valid point. But how many of those are there?
OH’s population never increases where new highways are needed?
75 goes north, right? Goes by Cleveland?
I75, in OH, connects Cincinnati with Toledo by way of Dayton, Lima, and Findlay. I71 connects Cincy with Cleveland by way of Columbus.
I grew up in southern Ohio ... By “S-turns” do you mean where 75 goes through downtown Dayton?
Yeah. So more or less 75 goes pretty close to Cleveland. I forgot about the 71 cut off. Yes, the downtown Dayton S-curve.
I’m not sure that I’d call more than 100 miles “pretty close” by Ohio standards ... Usual way to Cleveburg was 70 to Columbus and then 77 up to the Mistake on the Lake. I suppose one could take 75 up to Toledo and then cross on the turnpike, but I never knew people to do that.
The downtown curve was (is) colossal idiocy ... even worse was the very small 70/75 interchange. They finally got that fixed.
OH’s population doesn’t increase much. OH has plenty of highways; it’s maintenance that’s the issue.
What about vehicles that do most of their miles outside of Ohio?
In California the gas taxes have gone up and up with not a dime going to road repair in the last one. All for the fat pensions of gov’t workers. The past increases just most the taxes have gone for pensions.
The same will happen in Ohio.
In CT, New GOV Lamont announced big tax increase today. $1.7 billion per year.
No cuts.
Add $1 billion of new tolls to that.
I don’t expect the peoples to revolt.
Rich peeps like tolls ... Regressive.
Poor peeps with EBT won’t hafta pay
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