Posted on 12/26/2014 4:17:54 AM PST by Kaslin
Too much power being grabbed by Washington -- Obamacare, environmental regulations, education standards. That's a constant complaint of conservatives not only during Barack Obama's presidency but during George W. Bush's as well.
But power is also flowing out of Washington, largely unnoticed, and back to the states and localities. You can see that if you look at transportation policy, which is following the same path as the little remembered federal revenue sharing program enacted in the Nixon years and phased out during the Reagan presidency.
Federal transportation spending has an even longer pedigree, dating from the Federal-Aid Highway Act signed by Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. A few states had already been building limited-access toll highways. The new law instituted a federal gasoline tax to pay for Interstates, as they became known, throughout the country.
It made sense at the time, and for years afterwards. There was much more economic disparity between states then, and federal money could be spread from rich states to poor. Interstates would make trucking transportation cheaper at a time when overregulation was making freight rail uneconomic. Routes between states could be coordinated, connecting all major metropolitan areas (though not those which would become major, notably Phoenix and Las Vegas).
But it doesn't work anymore. Gas tax revenue is flat lining because people haven't been driving as much since 2007. Gas mileage has improved, and increasing mileage standards and electric and hybrid vehicles will reduce revenues all the more.
So gas tax revenues are insufficient to replenish the Highway Trust Fund. Congress could increase the gas tax, but won't; it's highly unpopular and only a handful of members favor an increase. Barack Obama understands that and is not seeking one.
The alternative is to spend money from general revenues. But that puts a squeeze on discretionary spending because general revenues are and will be increasingly needed for entitlements -- Social Security and Medicare. In the meantime, Barack Obama has said, the best Congress "could do would be to stagger through another year" of temporary funding.
In effect, the feds are abdicating and the states are taking up the burden. New roads and bridges are needed in some places and, more important, existing roads need to be maintained, repaired and upgraded. More than 30 states have passed transportation fiscal measures in the last three years, according to transportation expert Ken Orski. Six have increased gas taxes. Others have increased highway tolls, floated toll revenue bonds or have passed sales taxes dedicated to transportation. "The move toward greater fiscal autonomy, self-sufficiency and financial innovation at the state and local level is likely to grow in strength," Orski wrote.
The gas tax, justified as a user fee, is being replaced by tolls, a more efficient measure of use. Transponder technology allows tolls to be levied based on actual use, and fees can be adjusted to discourage congestion at peak-use hours, as is being done in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. There's a move to public-private partnerships, like the one Canada is using to finance a new Detroit River bridge, in which private capital puts up the cash and is repaid from tolls. Some conservatives complained, evidently on the theory that highways are built and maintained for free. But private decision makers are likely to make better decisions than the feds about where the real needs are.
Democrats have obdurately blocked (and most Republicans have been less than eager about supporting) entitlement program reform, which means that entitlements will continue to squeeze discretionary spending out of federal budgets. Transportation is just a leading example.
Something similar happened years ago with revenue sharing, a program promoted in the 1960s by Brookings economist Joseph Pechman. Pechman argued that revenues from the progressive federal income tax would rise faster than incomes and that Congress should share the largesse with the states. He concocted a formula to reward states with progressive taxes of their own and penalize those without, and it passed Congress in 1972 and was signed by Richard Nixon.
This economic redistribution increased as inflation pushed people with stagnant real incomes into higher tax brackets. In response, Colorado Sen. William Armstrong put income indexing in the 1981 Reagan tax cuts.
That, plus increasing crowding out by entitlements, led to the repeal of revenue sharing in 1987. Now we're seeing the slow-motion disappearance of the Highway Trust Fund. Washington is always trying to accumulate power. But some of it is flowing away.
Barone’s love of tolls and their benefits is so one-sided it isn’t funny. It wouldn’t surprise me if doesn’t even own a car. Most tolls are predicated on a bald faced lie - that it will end when the ‘whatever’ is paid for.
In the end, they are another tax and a perpetual entitlement for the authorities that create and man them.
That and the fact that this “power” flowing back, is not the states taking back anything; it’s just additional power (money) stolen from state residents who are still paying their Federal tribute.
Florida at least spends their toll money on infrastructure—gotta support those tourists. LOL
You must be one of these.
When state fuel taxes are raised, politicians moan about crumbling roads and bridges....and then turn around and use the fuel tax as their budget-rescuing slush fund and spend the rest on so-called transportation projects like choo-choo trains and college geeks’ solar cars along with cash lavished on one ‘multi-modal study’ after another. These studies discover nothing and solve nothing but they keep armies of bureaucrats employed.
Meanwhile, the roads and bridges remain untouched.
In these states that have increased toll roads, have they ever reduced gas taxes? Does the Federal government cut their part of the gas tax? Do they cut the ad valorem taxes and license fees they levy on vehicle owners. Does the Federal government cut the taxes it levies on tires?
Your assumption that I think it’s free or should be free is as absurd as the article line you quote.
Tolls are just another way to tax the business of America and those that actually go out and get to a job and produce something.
PS - the fuel tax is, perhaps unwittingly, ironclad evidence that consumption taxes produce far better results than confiscatory taxes.
Here in Louisiana, $70 million/year is stolen from the gas tax and given to the State Police. Those fat retirements have to be funded somehow.
The best of all would be getting rid of the 17th Amendment and putting the US Senate back in control of State legislatures.
Tolls make you pay twice for the same supposed service.
Yeah, so states charging tolls is a good sign? Federal power ‘slipping away’? What is that guy smoking?
Back in August, we inadvertently strayed on to a toll section of the road surrounding Raleigh. There were no toll booths. We drove a very few miles and got off....... we paid no toll.
Weeks later, we got a toll bill in the mail .A camera got our tag number and traced it through Tennessee DOT and mailed the bill. The toll was $0.41 the postage was I believe $0.48. The postage was more than the toll.
When conquering rulers invaded foreign lands, they invariably would leave compliant governors, magistrates, etc. behind to keep up the looting and keep a thumb on the people.
The Federal government is no different here. They relinquish part of the money, divvy up the booty (while still maintaining ridiculous regulatory control) and let the local henchmen ‘get some’ of the pie. Greed is the common denominator.
Is Washington’s power fading away? Not hardly. Now, if you said that the power of the senate and congress is fading away, that I’ll agree. Question: “HOW MANY LAWS HAS CONGRESS & SENATE PASSED?” Answer; “NOT A HELL OF A LOT”. Now question: “HOW MANY “RULES & REGULATIONS” HAVE THESE “ALPHABET GOVERNMENT AGENCIES” PASSED”? Answer: “ALMOST HALF A MILLION”. As it stands now, we really don’t need the senate or congress in Washington. Because they are being made inconsequential. The “REAL” law makers in Washington are the BUREAUCRATS in all these GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.
Interstates would make trucking transportation cheaper at a time when overregulation was making freight rail uneconomic. …A double whammy, IOW. Overregulate a free-market mode while centralizing the infrastructure of its “competition”.
Yes, as long as the “tax” for same is in place. Used to be that toll roads were strictly in the private sector.
But since the federal gas tax goes into the general fund first, how do we know what is really collected and what has been skimmed?
A state-owned toll road is a government scam.
Gas tax replaced by tolls? Augmented by, maybe, not replaced.
sneaky b******s
What the hell is he smoking???? Washington RUNS our lives!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.