The question is how to fund roads and their repairs. We all bitch about roads, but none of us want to pay to fix them or build new ones.
The problem is that even people who would be willing to pay an increased gas tax aren't convinced that any increase would actually go to building and maintaining roads. Instead, they rightly fear that much of it would be used to build bike lanes and light rail boondoggles.
I pay 37 cents a gallon in taxes. I have no problem with that IF it goes for what it was intended for. If they want to start dictating who pays more or less for the same product, then lets do it all the way. If I buy 5 gallons for my generator should I pay road tax fees on that 5 gallons? No? Then people will fill 5 gallon jugs and then leave and then pour them into their cars when they get home. Bad idea if you ask me.
In New Zealand we've had road user charges for diesel vehicles since 1978... the problem is, the money collected from those charges goes to the consolidated fund to pay welfare instead of the dedicated roading fund it's meant to go to. The ideal scenario could be to have expressways set up as a company the public can buy into on the stock exchange, much like the Milan to Turin Autostrada is, with the State leasing the Company the land the roads are on for a fixed amount per year and pricing ceilings or, at the very least, a State review board to oversee price hikes. State/Government doesn't really have to be involved in the operational side infrastructure as much as it is.
The question is how to fund roads and their repairs. We all bitch about roads, but none of us want to pay to fix them or build new ones.""
The money has been in the road and highway repair/building fund.
Gray Davis raided that specific fund 3 different times and put the $$$ into the general fund to pay for all the feel good and fuzzy items the Liberals in Sacramento keep voting for.