Posted on 01/17/2013 5:33:48 AM PST by Kaslin
Yet another "Trust Fund" is broke. This time, discussion involves an alleged "Transportation Trust Fund".
As with Social Security, there is no "Transportation Trust Fund", only a stack of unmarketable IOUs from one branch of government to another.
If there is any trust in the system, there shouldn't be, and soon won't be. Obama will surely see to that.
Grid Chicago reports Charging by the mile, a gas tax alternative, sees serious movement.
Because of vehicles with higher fuel efficiency, slightly less driving, and the gas tax not being changed since 1993, the motor vehicle fuel tax, or “gas tax”, has failed to pay for everything that Congress has legislated that it should pay for. The Highway Trust Fund, which includes the Mass Transit Account, has received several infusions of money from the “general revenue fund” – to the tune of over $60 billion.
But a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the congressional think tank focused on financing, past, present, and future, has made the country take a giant step forward in considering a switch to a fee that more accurately charges usage. The report, like all GAO studies, was commissioned by the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee.
The gas tax charges drivers based on their use of petroleum, different vehicles can go different distances on the same amount of petroleum: essentially, some pay less than others for the same use of the road. Additionally, the counts of how much people drive has decreased (called vehicle miles traveled, or VMT), yet our demand for funds to maintain and build new infrastructure outpaces the incoming revenues from the gas tax. Lastly, the federal gas tax hasn’t changed at all, sticking to a cool 18.4 cents per gallon (for non-diesel drivers) since 1993. ”While the gas tax was equal to 17 percent of the cost of a gallon of gas when it was set at its current level in 1993, it is now only 5 percent” (Streetsblog).
The Simpson-Bowles Commission, convened by President Obama to find strategies to improve the country’s fiscal situation in 2010, “called for an immediate 15 cent-per-gallon increase in the gas tax”.
An alternative to the gas tax is to charge people based on how much they drive, a mileage fee. This can be calculated in more than one way, and doesn’t require the use of a GPS system to track where people are going: pay-at-the-pump (or electric vehicle charging station), and prepaid, self-reporting system based on odometer readings.
An on-again, off-again move by the Obama administration to scrap the federal gas tax in favor of a pay-per-mile fee would boost the tab to Americans as high as 250 percent, raising their current tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to as high as 46 cents, according to a new government study.
But without a tax increase, said the Government Accountability Office study, the government's highway fund is going to go dry. One reason the fund is going broke: President Obama's push for fuel efficient cars has resulted in better mileage, and fewer stops at the pump.
The GAO study is just the latest review of federal spending that paints a grim picture of the nation's infrastructure. Just keeping spending at current levels, the GAO said, would require a near doubling of the gas tax to 32 cents a gallon, and that would jump to as high as 46 cents should the federal government add spending to fix crumbling infrastructure and build new roads.
One reason gas prices are so high is that the Feds impose a tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gas. It’s 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel. We’ve had federal gas taxes since the 50’s to pay for highways and bridges, but since 1983, they started diverting about 20% of gas taxes to go to a Mass Transit Account that is supposed to pay for public transportation like buses and railways. So, those of us who don’t use mass transit are paying for those that do in the form of gas taxes. That’s socialism for you.
We’ve had the 18.4-cent per gallon tax since 1993 under the Clinton administration. Nowadays, with the further destruction of the dollar, that 18.4 cents just doesn’t buy what it used to. Now, the Highway Trust Fund (which includes the Mass Transit Account) is facing insolvency.
Some credit the loss of revenue to the fact that many are using more fuel-efficient cars and therefore not spending as much on gas. Isn’t that what Obama wanted? For people to use more “green” energy? And now, the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money.
That could be part of it, but billions of the gas tax revenues are used to fund pet mass transit projects, which those who drive cars generally don’t even use.
If states want to have public transportation, they should raise their own revenue and pay for it themselves instead of taking federal highway funds to build it. As for paying for highways and roads, we could cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Obama’s foreign policy expenditures and put those funds toward domestic infrastructure and not have to impose one penny of gas taxes to fund it.
forget “replace”. Think “in addition to”
And it's no wonder why we have no money to maintain our infrastructure. We already pay taxes 10+ ways that are supposed to go for infrastructure, but that money gets diverted, and nothing is left.
This is a prime example of the old adage, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Whenever gas prices have risen, people have found ways to stop driving as much —carpooling, preplanning errand trips, walking more, etc. This will just spawn a black market of neighborhood jitney services and co-op grocery shopping.
Recipients of Obamaphones get free minutes. Will those same people get free Obamamiles?
It's reminding me of the Highland Clearances, during which small farmers in Scotland were burned out of their villages, their swords confiscated, and forced either to Glasgow or Edinburgh to chattel work in factories and living in tenements, or to flee to Canada, America and Australia.
It was our gain; but now with Kelo-inspired and environmentalist land confiscation and the present admin's threatened gun confiscation, such possibilities are looming again.
Satan hates freedom.
Urban planner types have been on the warpath against cars and suburbs and messy, people-enabling freedom since at least the 60's. That's when I picked up an architecture or urban planning magazine and was surprised by the undercurrent of hostility toward mobility and freedom and suburbs. They HATES it .....
Portland, Oregon, is the test case. The key is city-county government that allows the city crowd -- the "downtown boys" as Paul Newman called them in The Verdict (Newman, Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling, James Mason) to forbid people building permits out in the suburbs. Portland is a totalitarian microcosm. Pen people up in the city, then milk them like cows. Shades (as long as I'm comparing things to movies) of The Matrix.
We shouldn't be surprised. All this stuff goes back to LeCorbusier and the Bauhaus School. They were socialist as hell. Le Corbusier himself was the guilty party who thought up the idea of "the projects", vast tenements for housing the Proletariat -- iirc his basic tenement squat was a rat-cage of about 500 or 600 square feet. San Francisco architects are cutting up apartment buildings right now into 200- and 400-sq. ft. squats that they propose to rent for $1500-2000/month. Ain't crony capitalism grand? Of course, a little bit of muscle has to be applied, to convince the victims to give up their suburban greenery for the more austere pleasures of High Totalitarian Socialism.
He kills another business,taxi anyone.
What some do not realize is that the only way to change this current path is to
fire and replace every elite in Washington. Boehner holds the beltstrap in the house
and threatens every new Critter to do as he demands. This has gone way to far for to long.
Voting is the only way to stop the progression of facism/socialism in our country.
As soon as they do this, we’ll start hearing complaints about increased traffic congestion on “shortest distance” commuter routes as people stop using less-congested, but longer driving distance secondary roads.
The keep talking about this, but I think practicality will keep it away. The vast majority of cars goes years without any interaction with the government, so they have no way to track. And if they want us to self report we’ll just lie (ask the states how many people admit to buying stuff from out of state so they can pay the sales tax), and since the government will never find out the car’s mileage the lie is undetectable. Cars with GPS might self report, but people will just go away from them.
Mass transit cities such as San Francisco, are now trying to get permission from the city to allow ‘juveniles’ to ride the BART and other mass transit systems for FREE......Because ‘so many need to use mass transit to get to school.’ (most of the age appropriate juveniles this would affect are dropping out of school to sell drugs anyway).
Another little gem of information, which is NOT being reported, is that in California, school registration in K-12 is down over 10% in this school year.
Keep in mind that Gov Jerry Brown pushed a change in their income tax from 9.3% to 13.3% and also pushed an increase in sales taxes in the state ‘for the schools’.
Sin the schools were in session in September, and the election was in November, someone who is smarter that I needs to explain to me what level of outright lying was happening to push voters to approve both of these increases.
Giving ‘juveniles’ free mass transit is another way to have more trouble on an already plauged BART system. Those officers—who ONLY work for BART—are already overwhelmed with the punks tht cause trouble 24/7/365.
Charging a guy in Nebraska or Wyoming a miles tax to support mass transit in cities is just plain TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESWENTATION!!!!
I live rural. I have to go over 6 miles one way to the post office. I go over 24 miles one way to the grocery store. I go 20 miles one way to Wal Mart. Even at that, I only put 203 miles on my truck in 2012 and less than 3000 miles on my car. The amount of gas I use with my truck costs me more at the tax per gallon rate than the miles rate—but then I am ASSUMING that they won’t chronically raise the price per mile!!! Silly me!!!
This is another direct attack against the middle of the country—taxing them more miles for living rural-—while they grow our FOOD—and sending the money to the mass transit systems.
If the mass transit systems cannot charge the right rate to their own passengers—who are benefitting from the service—why should some rancher in Wyoming be charged for the benefits those mass transit riders enjoy???
is that, with a lot more people not working because of jobs losses,”””
EXACTLY right.
Where in the city will they produce their food?
Soylent Green?
You are right that cities have a lot of programs to let certain people ride for free. In my area, seniors and kids get to ride for free. A woman in my office was talking about it the other day — she turned 65 and now gets a free “one zone” weekly public transportation pass for the rest of her life. And “disabled” people can easily get free public transportation in my area too. All these things are paid for out of transportation budget that is portrayed as repairing “the nation’s crumbling infrastructure”. Its all a scam.
Change the “if” to “when” and you will know how much time your husband’s business has. I would opine not long, but then again, that is what the parasites returned obama to the White House to do. TO Wit: Destroy the United States.
I know. Instead, I’m trying to level the playing field by figuring out how to work the ‘green’ bs to our advantage.
Why are you raising insignificant details? Remember it is the fulfillment of the Green Agenda that is the goal. Of course if more people starve to death, then there will be less population and thus less people to produce pollution.
(scarasm)
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