CBO: Tolls, mileage fees would better fund roads

The Hill ^ | February 16, 2016 | Keith Laing

[Alberta's Child]

I am opposed to anything involving the tracking of vehicles on public roads, and you raise a lot of good points, but the fuel tax has three key flaws:

1. Because it's a tax that is paid up front at the point of purchase and is not tied to the specific use of any road, it doesn't function like a direct user fee. As a result, it functions a lot like a prepaid "all you can eat" meal you get on a cruise ship. Yes, the money you pay generally covers the cost of what you are getting -- but the end result is that you eat more than you normally would, and the food isn't very good. This is a perfect analogy for a congested highway system.

2. The Smart Car might contribute less wear and tear than the F-150, but the difference in the wear and tear caused by these two types of vehicles is almost inconsequential compared to the amount of fuel taxes paid by their owners. Even an F-150 contributes almost nothing to the wear and tear of a road or bridge compared to a tractor-trailer with an 80,000-lb. gross vehicle weight.

3. Fuel tax revenues decline over time as our vehicle fleet gets more fuel efficient, but the cost of maintaining highways does not. For that matter, electric vehicles use our roads just like everyone else, but generate $0 in fuel tax revenue.

[ScottinVA]

Hell no. Mileage fees put the screws to commuters. Any politician who backs that statist approach will never get my support.

[grania]

This is about tracking people

It's also about taking away the ability of "little folk" to travel freely and independently.

[rlmorel]

And how many people here feel confident that any funds raised in this fashion will actually go to maintaining the roads, vs. being used to pay for overpriced state employee union labor, or worse, being used in general funds.

That is, when the funds aren’t actually being used by the Federal Government as a carrot to coerce states into toeing the line on things like Common Care, etc.

[Dacula]

I agree.

We are having problems with failing bridges in Georgia. I thought that the Stimulus was to take care of that too.

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CBO: Tolls, mileage fees would better fund roads

I thought the Magic Negro’s “Stimulus 1” Was supposed to take care of all that.

When was that? 2009?

[SMM48]

I thought the Magic Negro's "Stimulus 1" Was supposed to take care of all that.

When was that? 2009?

Exactly!

Why has no one asked for an accounting for where all that money went? Hello? MSM, Congress, Taxpayers?

[Paine in the Neck]

This is about tracking people.

This. Fuel tax works reasonably well as a surrogate for road usage with the signal benefit to the people's liberty that it doesn't require tracking.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

In watching a nearby state and it’s road building, it can take TWENTY YEARS to get forty miles of road built.

If they decide to put in a Toll Road, that same forty miles can be in in five years.

[New Jersey Realist]

The bi-state authority that collects tolls on four Delaware River bridges in southern New Jersey wasted millions of dollars on lavish perks, approved projects without public input and issued no-bid contracts to firms connected to politicians, according to a report released in 2012.

The investigation into the Delaware River Port Authority conducted by New Jersey’s state comptroller found that poor oversight led to the mismanagement of toll payer money for years, even as the cost of bridge crossings increase every year.

In the 4 intervening years absolutely nothing has changed!

The Delaware River Port Authority tries to hide how much they take in each year but at $5 per car it has to be hundreds of millions each quarter. When they first started collecting 25 cents per car 60 or so years ago they said in 10 or 15 years the bridges would be paid for. Yeah right! There is no accounting for the money and very little maintenance on the bridges. Politicians line their pockets and families and friends are well taken care of. I know they contribute over half of the money taken in to many liberal causes that have absolutely NOTHING to do with maintaining the bridges and roads.

This is a disgrace that I am sure occurs in every state and I hope President Trump will put a stop to ALL political corruption.

[SaraJohnson]

Exactly. Spying.

[hal ogen]

What a crock. This is two-pronged wrong. First, they will only add this tax to that already existing. Second, they want info and control. What a crock...warmed and overflowing. Tyrants.

[cherry]

again....more taxes to the sheeple.....and btw, what a nice way to track all the sheeple and wherever they go.....

and, it not saying that they would eliminate the gas taxes, very prohibitive as they already are, but would need that plus all the mileage taxation...