(05-09-2011 01:50 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote: When the gas tax actually goes to highway maintenance as opposed to everything from bike paths to planters and trees along sidewalks, to curbs in subdivisions, etc I'll worry about how many dollars are being lost to Prius' and Volts.
Right now so much of those "highway" dollars go to crazy stuff that has no relation to highways.
Rather than looking to even bigger government and more taxing, good place to start this discussion is arguing for reforms to close all the loopholes in gas tax revenue spending. It's used as a pork slush fund way too often.
I looked into this before but if I remember correctly a huge chunk goes toward "deficit reduction."
A small percent goes toward mass transit, and I have no problem with monies being used for that purpose.
Plenty goes to the things I mentioned. Its gets line itemed as everything under the sun. Started under Carter.
There are 2 separate funds. One diverts gas tax dollars into the mass transit. One is supposed to be just for highways. Its not.
In 1990 George Bush I and in 1993 Bubba Clinton each passed legislation that raised the federal tax and then diverted an increasing amount to "deficit reduction" - ie: increasing spending on other pet programs and using the gas tax to fund it.
Additional gas tax funds are siphoned off by legislation to fund underground storage tanks leak abatement (Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund).
There are several other little piggybacks that got added on. The gas tax is a mess. Until they quit the b.s. spending, they can kiss my a$$ if they want to raise it or find a new way to tax drivers. This is just another proposed money grab to fund other initiatives and EPA pet projects.
(This post was last modified: 05-09-2011 02:45 PM by rath v2.0.)
PS: Don't forget all the other hidden Federal Highway Use Taxes.
When anyone buys tires for a large truck or construction or farm equipment there is an assessed Highway Use Tax of 9.45 cents per each 10 rated pounds over 3,500 lbs goes into the gas tax funds (and before anyone goes says it, this is not for disposal or EPA stuff...that is an entirely different tax).
12% of any sales price for any tractor trailer or trucks over 33,000 pounds gross vehicle weight (GVW) and trailers over 26,000 GVW goes straight to highways. That's 12% of any sale right off the top and into the highway fund.
All proceeds from fines and penalties imposed for violation of motor carrier safety requirements are deposited in the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund.
Annual tax: Trucks 55,000-75,000 pounds GVW, $100 pus $22 for each 1,000 pounds in excess of 55,000 pounds and trucks over 75,000 pounds GVW, $550 pus $ for each 1,000 pounds goes to the Highway Account. That tax gets assessed for anyone who owns and operates one.
I can keep going, but you probably get my drift.
(This post was last modified: 05-09-2011 02:51 PM by rath v2.0.)
I don't know the answer, but what is being proposed seems like a horrid idea. How much money is going to be spent installing these systems on cars and then having to monitor it. Plus people will find ways to cheat it or remove it, etc, so you will need an auditing system and suddenly we have another IRS. Plus gas stations will need install stuff and maintain it. This sounds like it is going to cost a boatload of money and I would not be surprised if they kept the gas tax in place or cut it slightly, but at the end of the day, we are paying more money and probably little would go to fund roadways.
I like to potential idea of dealing with it at time of registration, though how you monitor that when many people renew online and the DMV process is already slow as heck, this would only make it worse and probably lead to a greater occurrence of odometer fraud. So who knows how to improve the broken system, but this ain't it.
(This post was last modified: 05-12-2011 09:15 AM by BigDawg.)
LaHood: Administration Not in Favor of Taxing Drivers by the Mile
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
By Patrick Ryan
(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on combating distracted driving.
(CNSNews.com) -- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was adamant in telling CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the Obama administration does not favor tracking and taxing Americans for every mile they drive--a so-called Vehicular Miles Traveled (VMT) tax.
LaHood had personally suggested that the administration look at a VMT early in his tenure at the Transportation Department and it had recently been reported that the administration was considering such a tax.
In a Feb. 20, 2009 interview with the Associated Press LaHood said, "We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled."
"The system," the Associated Press reported then, "would require all cars and trucks be equipped with global satellite positioning technology, a transponder, a clock and other equipment to record how many miles a vehicle was driven, whether it was driven on highways or secondary roads, and even whether it was driven during peak traffic periods or off-peak hours. The device would tally how much tax motorists owed depending upon their road use."
At that time, LaHood's suggestion for a VMT was almost instantly shotdown by the White House with then-Spokesman Robert Gibbs saying at the next day's press briefing that a VMT "is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration."
President Obama had then just signed his $787 billion economic stimulus plan and the White House was looking ahead to his efforts to revamp the nation's health care system.
Earlier this month, however, both The Hill newspaper and Transportation Weekly reported that the administration had included a form of the Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax in its proposed Transportation Opportunities Act, which it was circulating in draft form.
Today, when LaHood held a joint press conference with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, CNSNews.com asked him about the VMT.
"I’m not in favor of that," LaHood said before the question was even finished. "Listen to me very carefully, OK. I am not in favor, the administration is not in favor of vehicle miles traveled."
"But, Mr. Secretary, should America rule out ever putting GPS systems in people’s cars and tracking the amount of miles they drive?" asked CNSNews.com.
"This administration is not in favor of vehicle miles traveled," said LaHood.
When asked what his personal view on the matter was, LaHood said, "Anybody else have a question?"
Before becoming secretary of transportation in the Obama administration, LaHood was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois.