Posted on 08/05/2014 8:18:27 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Small wonder Congress has kept federal highway and transit programs teetering on the edge of insolvency for years, unable to find a politically acceptable long-term source of funds. The public can’t make up its mind on how to pay for them either. […]
Among those who drive places multiple times per week, 62 percent say the benefits outweigh the costs. Among those who drive less than once a week or not at all, 55 percent say the costs of road improvement are worthwhile.
Yet a majority of all Americans—58 percent—oppose raising federal gasoline taxes to fund transportation projects such as the repair, replacement or expansion of roads and bridges. Only 14 percent support an increase. And by a better than 2-to-1 margin, Americans oppose having private companies pay for construction of new roads and bridges in exchange for the right to charge tolls. Moving to a usage tax based on how many miles a vehicle drives also draws more opposition than support—40 percent oppose it, while 20 percent support it. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
A few years back, Carl Levin was seeking a couple million out of transportation funds to save what was left of Tiger stadium in Detroit.
Just this spring, my county asked for and was approved for $2 million to tear down a wall in a county park. Fortunately we raised enough hell that they decided to spend the money on roads. (they did end up wasting money to repave a bike trail)
Exactly! States would think twice about allowing outward sprawl and, instead, focus on redeveloping areas already well-connected.
Great Point!! Let’s see how the present funds are being used or abused!
Hmmmmm. Bet a good place to start would be any expenses related to Transportation Department pensions!!!!
“Tax All Foreigners Living Abroad” always gets numbers in the high 70’s.
To get Americans to support any fuel tax increases, the states have to be responsible alone for more of the share than they are. That is the only way the states can be goaded by the road using public to get their own priorities straight, to cut out the fat, the desirable and get the necessary done and on time and for the best price.
As long as states can mismanage their own road priorities and try to use the federal highway funds as a slush fund for every non-priority road project and every project other than roads, it is only right that voters don’t want to give them more funds.
The states already themselves charge higher gas taxes than the feds do. The highway trust fund has been a slush fund since day one. It never should have come to be; it’s pure socialism, at both state and federal level.
You mean keep the populace in the cities, like the liberal politicians want?
Quite the opposite.
Frankly, California used to be quite the bastion of toll roads and an example to the nation of private enterprise versus socialism—just for one of the many states that did things that way.
I don’t see how your anecdote extends back into history. All it tells me is that your private road was/is frequented by socialistic-minded folk.
I guess you didn’t read that link I posted for you as to how things are done with federal fuel taxes. Taxes so collected are a misappropriation from day one. You allow the government to build and maintain your infrastructure, you come under greater government control.
We don’t agree.
Have a great day.
God Bless.
Referring to the Placerville Road, Eliot Lord commented that a “narrow, dangerous, wretched trail [which] was scarcely fit for the passage of sure-footed pack mules” had been transformed into “a broad, compact, well-graded highway, which might fairly be likened to an old Roman road.” J. Ross Browne agreed: “It is now a magnificent highway. . . . the rise is so beautifully graded as to be scarcely appreciable.”The upper revenue figure translates to about $1.8 million in 2014 dollars. Not bad for just ten miles. Worth mentioning for your comfort: this road in particular was franchised by the state.
During three winter months of 1863 alone, 2,500 wagons passed over it. Swan and Company, which was in charge of a ten-mile stretch, devoted $2,000 per mile to yearly maintenance in the 1860s and earned annual receipts ranging from $40,000 to $70,000. …
I don’t disagree that private toll roads have their place and were significant in development of many undeveloped areas.
But that is quite different than claiming no government has any business in owning/building/maintaining any roads.
I don’t see the difference, with all due respect. The vast majority of railroads still own and maintain their own infrastructure after all (i.e. save many commuter railroads and whatever rails Amtrak actually owns). There are many parallels here, especially historic ones.
End Davis-Bacon and the false prevailing wage laws.
Correct. The tax raises more than enough for actual roads.
How do we know that? It all goes in the general fund.
Should we really trust the federal government in this sphere? The feds once took over all of the railroads in the country, and had to give it back to the private companies because it was way too much for them; I don’t see how highways are any different.
That’s the other problem. They put all the “targeted” taxes into the general fund and spend them.
Just like any other “trust fund” of theirs. Fire sale on lockboxes, going cheap!
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