Posted on 02/15/2014 3:05:58 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. business and labor leaders urged Congress on Wednesday to raise the federal gasoline tax to prevent a fund that pays for road and bridge projects from running out of money as early as September.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing that allowing the Highway Trust Fund to run dry would slow road building and other infrastructure projects and hurt the U.S. economy.
"These investments not only create jobs but spur economic growth, ensure our country's long-term economic global competitiveness and improve the quality of life of our citizens," said Trumka, who heads the largest U.S. labor organization.
The Transportation Department estimates that the Highway Trust Fund, which relies on an 18.4 cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline and 24.4 cents-a-gallon tax on diesel, could run out of money as early as September. The taxes were last raised in 1993.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
First stop using the money to finance light rail and bike paths.
Raise the gas tax to pay someone $35 per hour to hold a sign on the side of the road while other workers make $50 per hour to put up $10 million electronic billboards over the road that flash out information like “Don’t Drink and Drive.”
Tom Donohue’s just full of good ideas:
A steady flow of talented, industrious immigrants can fuel a booming economy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3123445/posts
Take the gas tax money collected today, and spend it on what it was initially created for.
If mass transit needs money, then collect taxes on top of mass transit fees, to pay for it.
If subways need to be expanded, let them carry the load.
If new busses are required, let the buss fee taxes carry the load.
Quit making automobile owners pay for everything. Quit creating new toll roads. Quit selling rights of way to foreign national concerns.
We built this nation and it’s assets, and now we have no right to use the items we paid for. And if they say we don’t have enough money, then let them prove they didn’t take any of our gas taxes to pay for their non-automobile mass transit adventures.
“Infrastructure improvement” is code for funneling money to the labor unions.
“First stop using the money to finance light rail and bike paths”
...and ever other damn thing (buses, rental bikes, etc) except building/maintaining roads.
What’s going to prevent the taxpayers from running out of money as early as September?
The Chamber of Commerce has lost any connection to the American people at this point. It wants to pick our pockets clean and give our jobs to invaders.
A pox on them.
I’m wondering what level of bribe money they’re bringing on their visits.
Or we could stop blowing transportation funds on rain gardens, bike paths, and failing public transportation systems.
Highways
Most of the revenue from the federal gasoline excise tax is paid into the Highway Trust Fund. The Fund uses the money for federal highway and bridge improvements. This is a useful tool for increasing employment in the construction sector, especially during the summer.
Deficit Reduction
A significant amount of federal gas revenue goes into the General Fund, which helps reduce the annual federal budget deficit. For example, in 1990, a new tax of 2.5 cents per gallon was instituted on rail transportation. Proceeds went into the General Fund during the five-year duration of the program.
Public Transportation
About a third of federal gas tax revenue in the Highway Trust Fund also goes toward subsidizing local public transit projects. The argument for a highway fund being used for mass transit is that it reduces the number of drivers on the roads. Jonathan Williams of the Tax Foundation, among others, has argued that this is an inefficient use of highway funds, although more efficient than many earmarks that federal gas tax revenue has been used for.
Read more: http://www.ehow.com/list_5769981_federal-gas-taxes-used-for_.html#ixzz2tR3ffijL
Get rid of insane union work rules and the “prevailing” wage EO...
Weren’t all those funds for “shovel-ready jobs” supposed to fix the roads?
What happened to all that $ from Obama stash?? shovel ready, stimulus aka slush fund.
What a joke & Donohue just as bad, if not worse than the RATs.
“Quit making automobile owners pay for everything.”
How about defunding the EPA and getting rid of the low-sulphur diesel requirement?
So we can get more crepe myrtles, junipers, and daffodils planted at all of the the interchanges???
pays for road and bridge projects from running out of money as early as September
Everyone reading this post will agree that the simple act of making each (and every employee) work a productive 8 hour day on the road or bridge will solve all problems. It doesn’t take 7 men to watch 1 dig a hole and it doesn’t take 25 inspectors to inspect the same thing and the most important is to hold the contractors fully liable fiscally for any failure to start a project until ALL plans are FINISHED and FUNDED at a non-negotiable (or subject to change) contract specification. Failure to comply penalizes the contractor, not the taxpayer.
My tagline has been around for many years and totally sums up ANY government project or contract.
I’m starting to see a pattern...
“Or we could stop blowing transportation funds on rain gardens, bike paths, and failing public transportation systems.”
The entire thing is basically an enormous slush fund, much like most of the rest of the Federal government funding.
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