Posted on 01/07/2009 9:04:20 AM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
Billions of dollars collected from motorists from gasoline taxes, tolls, and registration fees are being diverted by state and local governments into uses that have nothing to do with roads and highways.
According to the latest figures from the Federal Highway Administration, motorists gave state and local government $40.3 billion in 2005 for the ability to drive and own a vehicle. Gasoline taxes accounted for $20.5 billion in revenue while registration fees and miscellaneous taxes generated $13.5 billion. State and local toll roads also collected $6.4 billion from motorists.
After accounting for administration and overhead, $28.5 billion remained for all fifty states to spend in 2005. Of this amount, only $13 billion was spent on state and local road construction and maintenance.
A total of $8.9 billion of motorists' money was diverted into unrelated uses. A total of $1.4 billion went to mass transit and $7.5 billion was used for social spending. The remaining amount went to related uses such as paying down transportation debt and funding highway law enforcement.
Selected spending tables from Highway Statistics 2005 are available in a 140k PDF file at the source link below.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewspaper.com ...
Just like the social security lockbox.
General spending on what?
You are spot on! This is all part of the leftist attack on individual freedoms. They want you on the collective mass transit so they can keep an eye on you. Individual cars give individuals power and that doesn't work in the collective culture.
Same with carbon tax and cap & trade. The idea is.... everyone gets to emit x tons of carbon per year. If you want to emit more (like owning a snowmobile, ATV, pleasure boat, motorcycle, power lawn mower, etc.) you will have to buy carbon offset credits. Like ration coupons. Someone (like a 90 year old granny) will sell her credits in the market and you will buy credits to be able to use your power toys. The price of these credits is the carbon tax everyone is howling about.
Its all part of the plan to enslave the individual and make us subservient to the state. Peasants don;t need power toys. They need to work at their government jobs for government scrip. But, the elite! Now, they get the toys, the limos, the dachas, etc. because they are important. They serve the state at a very high level and to encourage them to serve, they must be properly cared for.
I’m not surprised by it at all. But I know that there are plenty who will be once they get this in their email inboxes.
I thought it was a good refresher, which is why I posted.
It’s not being talked about enough.
Good catch. That’s the bureaucracy.
Rush is reading it right now as I type.
Word for word.
In Utah, cities are protesting they have already used most of their funds for snow removal for this winter, which is weird, because it hasn’t been that bad. Our snow amounts are really low. Leads me to believe they didn’t allocate enough funding in the budget and makes me wonder where that money went. Now they’re saying they’re either not going to have as many plows, or they’re going to have to take the funds from other areas. I’m already seeing that it’s taking significantly longer to get even major roads cleared. I work by a major hospital, so I know they’re supposed to clear that road as a priority.
I’m all for light rail...as long as we can use it to run Governor 39% Perry out of Texas!
sounds like you've met MN's own "Jimmy Bikeshorts" aka James Oberstar.
My corrupt congressman (Oberstar) stood at the site of the I35W bridge collapse and lectured us about how it happened because we are not paying enough in gas taxes.
In North Carolina, we have a nice new Tea Pot Museum, thanks to our road taxes :)
Missouri put a stop to that happening with a ballot initiative. The improvement of the roads over the past five years has been incredible.
ANYTHING they want....esp...anything that buys votes.
This reminds me that every damn time I talk to a liberal about taxes (It is like trying to explain programming to a dog, but worse.) the brain-dead idiot always says “Don’t you want roads?” as if those are the only things the government spends money on. Now I can point out that they aren’t even spending what they were supposed to on roads.
They could use it to fund a “gun buy-back” and claim it stimulates the economy for the chillun (the chillun need their stimulatin’), I guess.
This reminds me of those tobacco lawsuits. Some states sued the tobacco companies and got huge settlements. The money was supposed to go into escrow to promote no smoking policies and healthy living programs. Poof! The money was used for everything under the sun, except meaningful anti-smoking programs.””
Nothing but a trial lawyer scam from the start.
So true
And the good life for them.
Interesting - I’ve not followed this that closely, but I recall reading that the feds were out of funds to distribute for roads, etc based on Americans changing driving habits (a really good thing), so additional tax may be necessary or funds from the federal general funds would have to be transferred. Now, this article has the states using road funds for other purposes.
We are so screwed.
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