Posted on 01/15/2008 2:56:00 PM PST by BradtotheBone
A federal panel today recommended a steep increase in motor fuel taxes and an increased emphasis on mass transit to meet the nation's transportation needs and repair its deteriorating infrastructure.
In its report, the 12-member National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, appointed by Congress in 2005, recommended increasing the federal gasoline tax by as much as 40 cents a gallon, at a rate of 5 to 8 cents per year.
The current federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon and the state tax is 20 cents. The price of a gallon of regular gasoline has hovered near $3 for months.
The report, Transportation for Tomorrow, also recommends congestion pricing — tolls that increase with the volume or speed of traffic — in metropolitan areas.
Other tactics suggested include "a freight fee for freight projects and ticket taxes for passenger rail improvements," according to the commission's announcement.
Three of the commission members, including the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, dissented from the conclusions.
"Raising gas taxes won't improve traffic congestion. It will only perpetuate our ineffective reliance on fossil-based fuels," Peters said in a prepared statement.
"A better way forward is to provide incentives to states willing to pursue more efficient approaches and to invest federal funds more effectively to give commuters real relief from gridlock," she said. Among those approaches, the dissenters suggested tolls and congestion pricing.
A statement from Gov. Rick Perry called the study recommendations "incredibly short-sighted" and said that "raising taxes is a surefire way to stifle growth, and limiting states' freedom to innovate will only make it worse."
As an alternative to tax increases, Perry and the late Texas Transportation Commission chairman Ric Williamson have advocated strongly that Texas enter long-term contracts with private companies to build and operate toll roads.
Perry said he also opposes the report's recommendations "curtailing states' ability to leverage the capital and innovation of the private sector."
Among the other recommendations by the 12-member commission:
— Work to cut traffic fatalities in half over the next 17 years by urging states to embrace new strategies to improve safety.
— Ease traffic congestion by expanding state and local public transit systems and highway capacity.
— Protect the environment by smoothing traffic flow, encouraging alternative commute options such as carpooling and public transit and promoting energy-efficient construction and lighting in transit systems to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
— Seek to develop new energy sources with new research programs costing $200 million annually over the next decade.
The proposals for improving the nation's transportation system, which are expected to cost $225 billion each year for the next 50 years, is at risk of stalling because of internal division. The commission's chairwoman, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and two other members oppose gas tax increases and were issuing a dissenting opinion to the report that said private-sector investment and tolls would be sufficient.
The gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and recent efforts by Congress to raise it have faltered over the objections of the Bush administration. The tax increase is designed to take effect in 2009, after President Bush leaves office.
It is time for a "new beginning," the report said, calling the current strategy of patchwork repair "no longer acceptable."
The report also calls for the country to rebuild and expand its rail network to meet a growing demand for alternatives to congested highways and to promote partnerships between the public and private sectors at U.S. ports.
The commission was formed by Congress in 2005 to study the future needs of the nation's surface transportation system, which includes roads, mass-transit systems, ports and rail lines — as well as to recommend funding options.
The report comes as state governments and several business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, are calling on the federal government to raise gas taxes to pay for substantial transportation improvements. The Minneapolis bridge collapse, which killed 13 people and injured about 100, also shone a national spotlight on the unsteady condition of the nation's roads and bridges and drew new calls for additional spending.
The Bush administration has said that raising taxes won't cut congestion and creates additional risks for congressional pork, such as Alaska's infamous multimillion dollar "Bridge to Nowhere," which has been scuttled.
In its report, the commission unanimously agreed that measures of accountability were needed to keep watch over state and federal spending.
BTW, Americans currently use about 320 billion gallons of petro per year. That comes out to a 128 billion dollar tax increase per year on Americas producers or a 1 trillion 128 billion taxe increase on the low side for the decade after the tax is enacted.
Nice stimulus package!
We are in a political twilight zone, with no sign post up ahead.
If this goes through, There will be a lot of DC strretlights with VERRRRRRRY interesting things hangin from them.
In Cal, we’re busy trying to make carpool lanes, toll lanes. We pay a high gas tax and then the state puts the money into the general fund. So when we need transportation money, we just convert lanes to tolls. No problem.
It gets talked about, but it does not happen.
I urge a personal $40,000,0000 “tax” on every member of this Federal Panel.
Mass transit doesn’t work. Stop throwing money at it.
A report today exposed the bridge failure as a defect in the DESIGN of the bridge, not because of inadequate maintenance or insufficient funds for maintenance.
The socialists are running full tilt to make driving a private vehicle unaffordable while raping our wallets to pay for more useless rail projects. The mandated increase in CAFE fuel standards will be accomplished by making vehicles smaller and lighter. That will lead to INCREASED fatalities based on previous experience. That is completely opposite to the objective of lower fatalities sought in the article's recommendations. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
GM reports the new CAFE standards will raise the cost of vehicles a minimum of $6,000. Flex fuels like ethanol REDUCE mileage. Again, the left hand isn't paying attention to the right hand.
Anyone who is setting a mileage goal ten years out, is merely managing the status quo. If they were serious about alternatives, mileage standards would be a moot issue.
Now where did I park my mule!
Ummm, shouldn’t mass transit be provided BEFORE the huge tax increase to force people to want to use the non-existent mass transit?
I didn’t vote for that bastard,and when gas goes up you are gonna hear me bitch.Load and clear.Then I will start to inflict political damage on those responsible.
BTTT
If Fred Thompson said during a national debate that electricity rates in our country are artificially low and that we should be paying $14 per Killowatt hour and half the country voted for him, don't you think utility companies would incorporate his point into their future pricing structure plans?
Any “poor sucker” who buys gasoline, diesel, or any other motor fuel already automatically pays a fuel tax that at least theoretically goes toward the construction and maintenance of highways and other roads. Motor vehicles generally do use those roads as rarely as they buy gasoline and thereby pay fuel taxes. (Most legislatures frequently pilfer the road maintenance fund for non-road spending and then complain of a lack of money to construct and maintain roads.) Perhaps “every poor sucker” nowadays only buys gasoline for non-road motors like lawn mowers, but in my experience, an overwhelming majority of gasoline purchases historically went toward on-road motor vehicle fuels.
It is no victory. It is the fad du jour. There isn't enough arable land on the planet to plant enough corn to make even a minor dent in the energy needs of the United States. The use of corn or other foodstuffs as fuel for transportation is driving up the cost of food in the U.S. and especially in 3rd world countries dependent on corn as a staple food. Farmers currently see a hot cash crop in corn for ethanol. The automakers see a chance to market a vehicle that burns "alternative fuel" to the clueless left wing environmentalists. A few hucksters (some of my co-workers included) see a way to make a fast buck standing up ethanol plants. The plants that can process non-food biomass e.g. switchgrass have some merit, but they will still never amount to a significant fraction of the energy needs in the U.S.
The habit of pilfering gasoline and diesel fuel tax for social programs and railroad programs is inexcusable. There is no need to raise the tax...just quit stealing it for illegitimate purposes.
That would eliminate what...half of this "commission's" staff & enablers, and hangers-on?
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