Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Gas Tax Hike Touted for Transportation Woes
WOAI News Radio San Antonio ^ | March 21, 2014 | Jim Forsyth

Posted on 03/29/2014 12:53:47 PM PDT by JeepersFreepers

The Texas Legislature’s point man [Drew Darby] on transportation funding says Texas motorists need to understand that a higher gas tax would be a more 'open and transparent' way of dealing head on with the state's transportation crisis than the 'congestion tax' that motorists are currently paying every day.

"I think we need to revert to pay as your go," State Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) told the San Antonio Mobility Coalition."Nine times members of the Legislature have raised the gasoline tax to pay for our transportation infrastructure, but that hasn't happened since 1991.

Lawmakers over the past several years have rejected attempts to raise the gasoline tax, but Darby said borrowing money and racking up debt is 'not the conservative way to go.'

Darby also said repeated calls to 'end the diversions' of gasoline tax money to other programs would solve the underlying problem, saying those 'other programs' include the DPS, and nobody who calls for an 'end to diversions' has any alternatives on how to fund that agency.

(Excerpt) Read more at woai.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: darby; drewdarby; energy; excisetax; gasoline; gasolinetax; gastax; joestraus; keystonexl; mileagetax; opec; salestax; sanangelo; tax; texas
After his speech, Darby issued a press release stating that "I did not call for a gas tax increase nor have I ever ridiculed ending diversions." Darby is good at parsing words to have deniability while advocating an increase in the gas tax and ridiculing ending diversions of the tax.

Texas Rep. Drew appears to be RINO Speaker Joe Straus's point man to get a gasoline tax hike without ending diversions of the tax for non-transportation purposes.

1 posted on 03/29/2014 12:53:47 PM PDT by JeepersFreepers
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: JeepersFreepers

can’t they just import some Mexicans to fix the roads?


2 posted on 03/29/2014 1:00:03 PM PDT by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2

Better still that they DEPORT all the illegal Mexicans who are putting additional wear and tear on the roads ... and every other part of the state infrastructure!


3 posted on 03/29/2014 1:04:34 PM PDT by WTFOVR (I find myself exclaiming that expression quite often these days!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: JeepersFreepers

Taxing the public to the hilt who commute to and from a JOB while the 49% sit on their azzes and buy dope with Obama Bucks.


4 posted on 03/29/2014 1:05:42 PM PDT by Renegade
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JeepersFreepers

I guess we here in Texas have a choice: Pay 20 cents more per gallon in the gas tax, or pay 20 cents PER MILE to drive on highways - because either way, WE WILL GET CHARGED.


5 posted on 03/29/2014 1:09:47 PM PDT by BobL (To us it's a game, to them it's personal - therefore they win.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JeepersFreepers
The Texas Legislature’s point man [Drew Darby] on transportation funding says ...

They have simply to stop hiring ex-used car salesmen as government bureaucrats. It is not only ineffective, but lowers the estimation and credibility of politicians and bureaucrats generally.

Texas Rep. Drew appears to be RINO Speaker Joe Straus's point man to get a gasoline tax hike without ending diversions of the tax for non-transportation purposes.

That is the essence of ANY meaningful discussion about funding highway construction and maintenance.

HIDING TAX INCREASES DISHONESTLY SHOULD BE A CRIMINAL FELONY WITH MANDATORY 20 YEARS IMPRISONMENT.

That would be EVERY individual who conspires in the attempt

6 posted on 03/29/2014 1:18:04 PM PDT by publius911 ( At least Nixon had the good g race to resign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL
I guess we here in Texas have a choice: Pay 20 cents more per gallon in the gas tax, or pay 20 cents PER MILE to drive on highways - because either way, WE WILL GET CHARGED.

Nothing is inevitable. No matter where you live, the collective legal power of all individuals affected should be formidable and irresistible.

I would rather contribute $1 a month to a class action permanently continuing lawsuit against these criminal lying duplicitous SOBs, than simply "roll over."

7 posted on 03/29/2014 1:23:10 PM PDT by publius911 ( At least Nixon had the good g race to resign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: publius911

I guess you believe that the highways will build themselves if we protest enough. I’m not quite there though.


8 posted on 03/29/2014 1:27:20 PM PDT by BobL (To us it's a game, to them it's personal - therefore they win.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: publius911

“... HIDING TAX INCREASES DISHONESTLY SHOULD BE A CRIMINAL FELONY ...”
-
Adding alcohol to gasoline dilutes the fuel, and lowers the heat energy.
One US gallon of Gasoline (regular unleaded) = 114,100 BTU/gal
One US gallon of Ethanol (E100) = 76,100 BTU/gal [67% of gasoline BTU]
One US gallon of 10% Ethanol/Gasoline Blend (E10) = 111,300 BTU/gal [97% of gasoline BTU]
Adding 10% ethanol to gasoline requires burning 3% more fuel to accomplish the same task.

Ethanol blended gasoline requires buying more gallons of fuel in order to travel the same distance.
Highway fuels are taxed “by the gallon”, so governments collect more taxes with blended fuels.

Mandating the use of ethanol blended fuel is a disguise for a hike in gasoline taxes.


9 posted on 03/29/2014 1:38:42 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: BobL

Heard on the news the other night that Houston has added 250,000 people in just the last three years. Maybe if we don’t build any more highways they will quit coming.


10 posted on 03/29/2014 1:44:33 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: JeepersFreepers

Perhaps a better way would be to allow metro and counties to impose their own gas tax rather than punishing everyone (especially rural areas) with a uniform raise of the tax.

An even better solution, may be to cut government more to pay for and prioritize transportation without raising taxes?


11 posted on 03/29/2014 1:45:12 PM PDT by JSDude1 (Defeat Hagan, elect a Constutional Conservative: Dr. Greg Brannon!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL
I guess you believe that the highways will build themselves if we protest enough. I’m not quite there though.

It's always useful to hear from one of the perps. Since what you claim is a non-sequitur, I must respond, although I normally don't invite foodfights.

What you guess I believe is so self-serving.
I will, unlike you not guess, I will ask...
Do you believe that diverting tax revenue, created specifically to build and maintain highways, to other non highway related uses, regardless of good intentions, for decades, has not contributed to the necessity of this entire dialog?

You want to help children? Propose a tax for that purpose.
Do you want to increase the roll of the indolent? Try a tax for that purpose.
Examine the huge body of lobbyists and you will get an endless list of pork and other useless expenditures of taxpayer money.

No tax worth adopting justifies hiding it inside taxes collected presumably for a very clear and distinctive purposes.

The cigarette tax is another example of the criminal scam. No, I don't smoke...

12 posted on 03/29/2014 3:30:57 PM PDT by publius911 ( At least Nixon had the good g race to resign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: BobL

Get rid of the brother-in-law contracts, the fraud and corruption involved and you will have more than enough left over to do the job


13 posted on 03/29/2014 4:38:50 PM PDT by jsanders2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: JeepersFreepers

there are two problems - the diversions and the amount returned to TX by the feds from our gas tax payments. On the last part I think the last highway bill got TX to about 75 cents. If we got a nickel more that would be 600 million every year. The same with a gas tax, if 100% when to the highways, ever nickel returned would if combined with the feds over one billion dollars - more than enough to fix our roads.


14 posted on 03/29/2014 9:19:39 PM PDT by q_an_a (the more laws the less justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL
here is a chart on actual sales of gasoline

http://www.statista.com/statistics/202089/gross-volume-of-gasoline-sales-in-texas-since-2010/

if with those sales numbers and license plates or other taxes like on truck we should have plenty of cash flow for roads.

15 posted on 03/29/2014 9:24:18 PM PDT by q_an_a (the more laws the less justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: q_an_a; jsanders2001; publius911; Grams A

I realize talking about raising any tax doesn’t go over very well here - but I also live with what happens when an area grows like mad and the money to expand highways isn’t available.

In Texas, 5 cents per gallon of our gas tax goes to “the children” (i.e., schools). That needs to go to highways - the schools have PLENTY of other ways to extract money from us. But that still is not nearly enough to make up for TWO DECADES of not raising the tax - costs have doubled in that time - so we get half done.

But we don’t stand still either. Instead of taking our freeways from 3 lanes each way to 5 lanes each way, as we did up until about 2005, we now simply add TOLL LANES, which charge varying rates, up to 1 dollar per mile. Or we build new toll roads (at 20 to 30 cents per mile, with automatic inflation adjustment here in Houston). We are done building free lanes. Virtually all gas tax money now goes into maintenance.

So we expand, and WE PAY THROUGH THE TEETH, to use those roads. I like freeways, and I like the gas tax - EVERYONE benefits from good roads - not just drivers.

But, in the end, if I work an extra year or so (rather than retire when planned), I’ll have the money to pay to drive our new network of near-empty toll roads for the rest of my life, while others waste away in traffic - and I like that idea too. So, bottom line, I really don’t care anymore - I’m burned-out arguing with you guys. If I have to pay several thousands of dollars per year in tolls (rather than several hundred per year in gas taxes)...I will do so. If the government requires transponders to track my movements for tolling (which is coming soon...since we won’t raise the gas tax), BIG DEAL, let them. I have nothing to hide. They win...game over.

A couple of specific responses: For those waiting for the day when government corruption ends, you great-grandchildren will die first...not going to happen. So we can hold our highways hostage...but it won’t help a thing. As to whether people will stop coming here if we stop building roads - two things, we will not stop building here (i.e., toll lanes), and Los Angeles tried your approach - and now try driving through West LA these days and you’ll see that freeway speeds have NO EFFECT on population growth.


16 posted on 03/30/2014 3:29:25 AM PDT by BobL (To us it's a game, to them it's personal - therefore they win.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: BobL

great post...I agree 100%


17 posted on 03/30/2014 3:29:22 PM PDT by q_an_a (the more laws the less justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: q_an_a

Thanks man. It’s hard on me to go against people here, but I do when I think they’re wrong. In 2011 I was all over Rick Perry...and mainly because of his coddling of Illegals, but also because of his attempt to sell off control of our freeways to his friends (i.e., crony capitalism).

Nasty fights...but Perry wound up losing, so that was good - our freeways have not been converted to toll roads yet.

Hopefully I won’t have too many more fights in the future.


18 posted on 03/30/2014 5:25:46 PM PDT by BobL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: BobL

Perry is a classic crony capitalist - the Trans Tx was the most glaring of his type of rotten politics. I hope that the rest of the country is not fooled.


19 posted on 03/30/2014 7:43:12 PM PDT by q_an_a (the more laws the less justice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Grams A
Maybe if we don’t build any more highways they will quit coming.

That seems to be how the liberals in NC are dealing with it.

20 posted on 03/30/2014 7:46:44 PM PDT by riri (Plannedopolis-look it up. It's how the elites plan for US to live.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson