Posted on 05/30/2007 11:01:47 AM PDT by Sam's Army
Raise Gas Tax For Sake of Roads
By the end of the decade, the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expect to be depleted and running a deficit. Because it funds nearly half of all of the nation's highway construction, Congress is going to be faced with making an unpalatable choice: either increase the tax or allow the country's backlog of road and bridge needs to grow even longer.
Without a hike in the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax - which hasn't been increased since 1993 when gasoline cost about $1.10 a gallon - the Congressional Budget Office is predicting the highway fund will run $8 billion in the red by 2010, when Congress is set to rewrite the highway initiative. Add to the equation the American consumer's growing demand for more fuel efficient vehicles that use less gas and, in turn, produce less gas tax revenues, and the outlook for the fund gets even gloomier.
With gas prices spiking, why not put off a gas-tax increase? The demand of increased traffic on the federal highways is increasing, despite high gas prices. The work cannot be delayed.
If Congress rejects a gas tax increase, as it did two years ago when a 4-cent-per-gallon hike was turned down, highway-construction advocates are forecasting a shortfall in needed funding of between $100 billion and $150 billion a year by the middle of the next decade.
Congress needs to show some leadership on this issue. Allowing our highways and bridges to further deteriorate is unacceptable. It is especially critical in a growing state such as Florida, which depends heavily on its highways for ever-expanding commerce, not to mention its crucial tourism industry. Imagine traveling Polk County if Interstate 4, and the U.S. highways, are subject to decreased funding. They are bad enough already.
The funding problem is already evident in our state. The Florida Department of Transportation told the Associated Press this month that more than 90 percent of the new roads built in Florida since the early 1990s have been toll roads, because there simply was not enough highway money to meet the state's traffic needs.
Roads are an integral part of the American culture, for both business and pleasure. The gasoline tax is a true user's fee. The more someone uses our roads, the more gasoline they have to buy and the more gas tax they pay. It's simple, it's fair and it's overdue for an increase.
A half dozen states have adopted gas taxes that are tied to inflationary indexes to ensure the tax rate keeps pace with the cost of building new roads. Congress should consider this when it addresses this issue, hopefully sooner than later.
If there is one lesson we in Polk County have learned over the years, it is that putting off road construction doesn't really save the taxpayer anything. It only drives the ultimate price tag higher and higher as time passes, and land and construction costs soar.
No one wants to pay more or higher taxes, but if our existing federal highways are to remain drivable, and new roads are to be built to accommodate our remarkable growth, an increased gas tax is the only logical solution.
Instead of giving 500 billion to farmers to not grow crops, maybe we should spend our money on actually building things.
if the gas tax gets high enough..the roads will not have to be repaired since there will be no traffic.
Then the money "saved" can be used for "domestic" programs.....
YEEEEEAAAAAAAA.
There is oil available and doesn’t need to be imported. Lets just get it. There has never been a “good” tax.
I propose a $.10 per word tax on stupid editorials.
Spend those dollars to deport 30+ million illegals. 30+ million less on the roads means we won’t need new roads.
They are perfectly able to figure out what are the essential services of government. Until they do, not a single penny more!
‘The same media that regularly attacks “Big Oil” isn’t interested in making sure people pay less for gas after all.’
No democrats do, how is it this surprised you?
Algore wants a 2.50 per gallon tax as I recall.
Or giving $30 billion to ‘fight’ aids in Africa...
Here in IN we have leased our toll road to a private company and they are responsible for maintaining the road and of course the company keeps all the the tolls collected.......with the half million a day interest we are getting from this little endeavor the state is using that money for road construction.... I think it is a win win situation.
Of course they have not reduced the gas tax......oh well
There is already some 300 Billion sent in foreign aid already.
This is all in addition too.
Exactly so. Don’t forget that the federal bureaucracy skims off a pretty big percentage as a “handling fee” before they reroute the money back where it came from, and should have stayed, in the first place.
Regardless the amount of the tax, it is not now, nor will it ever be enough for the feds. Highway “trust fund”? Talk about an oxymoron. Anyone know if this so-called fund is anything like the social security trust fund, and thrown into general revenue for our elites to waste on pork?
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Psst! Someone tell this editorial writer it’s “children,” not “roads.”
When looking at what they get vs what they pay, the following states would make out well under such a proposal (at least a 10% increase in funds):
Texas, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, North Carolina
The following states would lose at least 10%:
Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Wyoming, Idaho, Delaware, West Virginia, Vermont, Hawaii, North Dakota, Montana, Rhode Island, South Dakota, DC, Alaska.
Interestingly, even with the big dig boondoggle, Massachussetts has received almost exactly $1 for every $1 they collect in federal gas taxes. The average state has been getting $1.06 for every $1.
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