Posted on 05/23/2007 5:16:00 PM PDT by george76
WASHINGTON – A cash crunch is fast approaching for the government trust fund that pays to build and repair highways and bridges.
The federal tax on a gallon of gas has not risen in 14 years and Congress is reluctant to increase it. People are demanding more fuel-efficient vehicles – less gasoline used, fewer dollars for the fund.
States already are looking for other places for road-building money – toll road and consumption-based sales taxes, for example. They worry that the fund's looming shortage could hurt their efforts to address traffic congestion as well as environmental and safety problems caused by inadequate roads. The situation can only get worse in 2009, when revenues for the Federal Highway Trust Fund begin falling short of planned federal spending.
The fund provides the overwhelming bulk of federal dollars spent on highways. It gets its money mainly from the 18.4 cents-a-gallon excise tax that drivers pay at the pump.
Self-service regular now tops $3 a gallon. There is concern the price will reach a price at which people will get serious about cutting back on driving – sending less money into the fund. Fuel tax receipts did dip last summer when there was a spike in pump prices.
About 45 percent of all highway spending comes from the trust fund. With less money available from the fund, states must turn elsewhere for money to expand their highways and fill their potholes. That prospect is making lots of people unhappy.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials says at least six states have adopted variable fuel taxes that are pegged to inflation.
Close to two-thirds of the trust fund's $40 billion in receipts last year came from the gasoline tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
The Senate Finance Committee is looking into temporary ways to refinance the trust fund, including redirecting some transportation-related taxes that now go into the government’s general account and clamping down on gas tax fraud.
Key point in the article is that States are complaining that the Federal teat is running dry. Well, so what? Isn’t it time to eliminate the Washington middle man? What piece of a dollar comes back when part of that money is used for bridges to sparsely populated islands or new roads that increase some pol’s property value? The Interstate highway system is substantially complete. Gift the roads to the states and be done with it.
They’ve been taxing the snot out of us for highway funds. Then they hold that money hostage until a state complies with one of their “it’s for the children” regulatory BS. Some areas have roads that are more of a hazard than not wearing a seat belt, or using a brain bucket(motorcycle helmet).
Let’s all bend over, because here comes a new Federal tax.
Lot of our gas tax was diverted to mass transit.
We agree that the Washington DC fees for handling our money should be cut out.
The feds love to add requirements to getting back our own money.
Indeed they do, then they go and spend the money on something else. Then they whine.
You realize that when this amnesty plot goes through, the Feds will be milking everyone for more and more revenue in the form of higher taxes.
Exactly!
In California all thos buckets and buckets of cash sent in for gas taxes gets spent on social programs......not roads.
This is more current and includes descriptions where some taxes are per gallon and which states have addition % sales taxes.
US FUEL TAX RATES BY STATE
http://www.texasgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx
That’s exactly right. The current roads and interstates were built by taxpayers dollars. A new road built and maintained by tolls is OK by me, mostly. Conversion of existing roads is a completely different issue. It may be the current system will be managed or allowed to fail, if only to give the illusion of no other way than to sell the existing road networks. More ethereal, I think that’s what happened to the “public” airwaves. Guess I wasn’t using them.
Thank you for your reply.
I knew that you would have the most current information.
I second that idea.
All the roads have been built and only have to be maintained.
40 Billion Sounds like a lot of money to me.
For that 40 billion is their any large cross country highway projects?
Scrap the fed tax and let the states collect the cash. If the states don’t want to build roads the people can always start walking or elect new leaders.
Will someone post that BS meter.
So some good has come from freezing the federal gas tax after all!
Does this dim-bulb author seriously think that processing taxes through the federal gummint, and returning a percentage to the states, is a MORE efficient way of financing roads than if the states tax themselves and finance their own roads???
Another stupid reporter and more stupid editors at the paper...
They wonder why their newspaper sales are down...
A look at why Illinois gas prices are higher than anywhere else
(http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/400809,251NWS9.article)
May 25, 2007
As of Thursday, Illinois had the nation’s priciest regular unleaded gasoline, averaging $3.515 per gallon, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Here’s a closer look at the issue:
Q: How do Illinois’ regular unleaded gasoline prices compare to other areas, including the state’s neighbors?
A: According to AAA, Wisconsin’s average as of Thursday was $3.423, Iowa’s $3.344, Missouri’s $3.213, Indiana’s $3.456 and Kentucky’s $3.181. South Carolina had the cheapest, averaging $3.011, followed closely by Alabama, Mississippi and several Northeast states.
Q: Why are Illinois’ prices highest?
A: One easy answer is taxes. Beyond the 18.4-cent-per gallon federal tax, Illinois charges a 19-cent-per-gallon state tax — two pennies higher than neighboring Missouri — and a 1.1-cent environmental tax, bringing Illinois’ flat taxes to 38.5 cents a gallon.
But the Illinois Petroleum Council’s David Sykuta says Illinois is among just a handful of states that charge sales tax on gasoline. In the Land of Lincoln, that’s 6.25 percent — not counting the local taxes municipalities can tack on, accounting for price variations between Illinois cities.
Q: Why do prices rise around this time of year in bigger cities such as St. Louis or Chicago?
A: Environmental regulations. Sykuta says that in warmer months, four Illinois counties near St. Louis and eight counties around Chicago must sell specially formulated, ozone-fighting gasoline that’s more costly to make, raising prices at the pump by 8 to 15 cents a gallon or more.
Q: What other factors affect how much gasoline retailers charge at the pump?
A: Just like other businesses, gasoline retailers must recoup overhead costs through the products they sell, namely gasoline that frequently accounts for more than two-thirds of their business, said Bill Fleischli, executive vice president of the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association, whose 500 members supply or own all but about 700 of the state’s 4,200 gas stations.
Though the federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin all require employers to pay most workers at least $6.50 an hour, according to the Labor Department’s Web site. The minimum wage is $5.15 in Kentucky and Indiana, and $6.20 in Iowa.
Gasoline haulers coping with higher trucking fees and taxes pass along those increases to retailers, who in turn may pass that expense along to consumers.
Pipeline issues also can lead to higher gasoline prices, Fleischli said. In recent weeks, a refinery in Indiana and one in Oklahoma have had disruptions, which could help account for higher wholesale prices for gasoline in the Midwest, he said. In this part of the country, the per-gallon wholesale price is up 57 cents over a year ago, far outpacing the second-place Rockies region (up 43 cents) and the Lower Atlantic (up 10 cents).
Q: Can anything be done to lower the price at the pumps?
A: Conservation among motorists could drop demand and create a surplus of gasoline, causing wholesale gasoline prices to retreat. But in the run-up to Memorial Day and the approach of the Fourth of July — two popular driving holidays — cutbacks by motorists may be unlikely. Competition among retailers — what Fleischli calls “an old-time gas war” where stations try to outdiscount the other, also could bring prices down.
But “from my perspective, and it’s all speculation, it doesn’t seem like there’ll be any great relief until the Fourth of July,” Fleischli says.
AP
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Great idea!
Then the oil companies push the price higher, pocket the difference (supply and demand, you know).
And who the heck pays for road construction and repair then?
Actually, the motor vehicle fleet out there gets WORSE fuel economy today than 20 years ago. In 1987, cars averaged 22.1 mpg and weighed an average of 3220 lbs with 118 HP, doing 0-60 in 13.1s. 28% were light trucks.
Today they average 21 mpg (-1.1 mpg), weigh an average of 4142 lbs (+882 lbs), pull 219 hp (+101 hp), and go 0-60 in 9.7s (-3.4s).
And 20 years ago cars were driven typically about 10k miles per year, compared to 15k now.
Thanks for the ping.
Did you notice that Lippincott avoids the obvious in his statement - why the population of Texas is increasing by 1,000 people a day - could it be illegals? Solve that problem and the highway trust fund will probably be adequate as it is.
‘No mas’ illegals! ‘No mas’ amnesty! ‘No mas’ toll roads.
Secure our borders now!
/rant
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