2 US Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase 619
An anonymous reader writes There are several proposals on the table to stave off the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund (which pays for transit, biking, and walking projects too) in two months. Just now, two senators teamed up to announce one that might actually have a chance. Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) have proposed increasing the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon over two years. The federal gas tax currently stands at 18.4 cents a gallon, where it has been set since 1993, when gas cost $1.16 a gallon.
Re:Good! (Score:5, Informative)
We need more regressive taxes in this country! Screw the poor people!
(Yes, consumption taxes on essential goods with demand tending towards inelasticity are regressive)
(my tinfoil hat tells me Corker likes this due to Toyota manufacturing in his state, and the increase in hybrid sales due to gas price hikes.)
Re:Good! (Score:2, Informative)
With all due respect. Are you crazy? New taxes are never the solution. Ever. This is like helping someone who is addicted to cocaine, more cocaine! How about this, they truely balance the budget first, then we can argue about how we should spend the money. You want new roads, awesome, then we cut social security, medicare and medicate. I am all for it! There is nobody on this planet that is as inefficient as our government and thus giving them more money is akin to being insane.. Their only solution to problems is to tax more, yet spending never really goes down.
Next you bring up building new roads in other countries. We somewhat agree on that one, but it sure is sad to see this administration snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Could you imagine if we actually took the oil, and sold it for a profit? Then again all those crazy nuts who said the war was about oil could scream that they were right.
Should be compared to CPI (Score:4, Informative)
Since the gas tax is ostensibly for the construction and maintenance of roads and highways, it should be compared to that. The cost of maintenance and construction scale mostly according to CPI, not the price of gas. I can't think of any reason why you'd compare the tax to the price of gas unless you're deliberately trying to mislead people into thinking it needs to go up more (political arguments about energy taxes aside).
Putting $1.16 into an inflation calculator [bls.gov] yields $1.90 in 2014 dollars, or a 64% increase. 64% of 18.4 cents is 11.7 cents. So a 12 cent increase is exactly what's needed for the tax to keep pace with inflation.
Re:Good! (Score:5, Informative)
I think the tax needs to be a percentage tax.
I agree that our infrastructure is suffering due to lack of funding.
Adjusted for inflation, this tax has lost almost 75% of the purchasing power it had 20 years ago.
Re:Good! (Score:4, Informative)
Say: "Social Security Trust Fund!" 100 times, then go count the IOU's that are in it... No dollars there, we spent it all.
Re:Bad! (Score:2, Informative)
Gas tax increases are a good pricing signal to increase fuel efficiency (better than CAFE standards or cash for clunkers). They also happen to be regressive so ideally you put in a credit to offset some percentage of the net increase to the poorest folks. I've been saying for a decade that we should have an automatic 5c per year increase in the federal gas tax, it's gentle enough that it doesn't screw over people who just bought an inefficient vehicle but the net effect is enough that future purchases will naturally tend towards more efficient vehicles. If we had started a decade ago today we'd have an extra 50c per gallon incentive to buy a more efficient vehicle and the insolvency of the highway trust fund would be another decade plus in the future.
Re:Good! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Good! (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/a... [ssa.gov]
1993 Average income: 23,132.67
2013 Average income: 44,321.67
Roads and Bridges, like firefighters and law enforcement offers, are a legitimate function of government. Funding for the roads has been cut in half by inflation and the infrastructure is becoming dangerous. Especially bridges.
If the tax had been set at 18%- then it would have scaled with gasoline prices. But with the increasing share of hybrids, much higher mileage of gasoline cars (33mpg vs 28mpg), many more trucks used for shipping (70% more in 2007 than in 1997) (roughly 15 million today vs 4 million in 1993), and now purely electric cars the tax needs to be changed to reflect today's reality.
What we really need is to remove the gasoline tax and replace it with a mileage tax.
I read a lot of 1850's newspapers and it's funny because with the civil war approaching, the voters and legislators then seemed more rational than our voters and legislators today.
You *can't* *have* the roads for *free*.
It *costs* money to build and maintain the road system.
Grow up.
Re:Good! (Score:4, Informative)
This expense represents a 35% increase in our budget. We cannot legally cut services. So we have to issue a "tax" (dues increase to the HOA) to cover the cost. The benefit to the community is that they will be able to sell their homes again--we've already seen a 20% loss in value.
So yes, taxes are sometimes necessary. In my case it's forced from the outside. In the government's case, it could be due to waste and inefficiency but I'm willing to bet that is a very small percentage (and a study I've read of welfare waste backs this up). It could also be due to increasing population, increased infrastructure regulatory requirements, dwindling resources, etc, etc, etc.
Re:Good! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Good! (Score:5, Informative)
While we're on analogies - what you're saying is you can live on a wage from 20-years ago today and ignore the inflation that has happened in that period?
Remember that this is a fixed rate set 21-years ago, while the costs associated maintaining infrastructures have gone up. Further, cars have also became substantially more fuel efficient reducing the per km value of the tax as well without corresponding reduction of wear or demand on the infrastructure.
Re:Good! (Score:5, Informative)
Translation:
Our gasoline costs $7.24/gallon. It's been over $6.50 for years now.
What? (Score:4, Informative)
The US Government has spent over a trillion dollars funding a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 6 billion dollars funding a revolt in the Ukraine, at least 9 million dollars funding rebels in Syria (I have not looked at any numbers past what Obama did last September), Billions in beefing up US Local police forces, Billions more on DHS, FEMA, and the TSA, Billions more funding Egypt's various revolutions, and untold amounts in "black budgets" all over Africa. Even the GOA who is supposed to ensure accountability for spent tax dollars, spends millions on a lavish party for 33 people in Las Vegas.
And you think average people who's salaries and average wealth has gone down by nearly 30% in the last decade alone should pay even more money because they could not spent anything on Roads and Infrastructure whilst they pissed away your money everywhere else?
Re:Good! (Score:3, Informative)
1993: $48,000
2014: $52,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
Typical Government reasoning.... (Score:3, Informative)
Instead of taking a hard look at where the money in the Highway Trust Fund is going, their solution is to simply bring in more money. The HTF was originally set up to fund the building of the Interstate Highway system. Period. That was it's sole purpose. Those funds were transferred to various States to build and expand the IH system as needed.
Fast forward to today and the HTF resources are being funneled into Transit systems, ferry boats, bike paths, and nature trails. All worthy causes but the money should not come out of the HTF. That's why it is underfunded.
This is the same trick that politicians play time and again. It happens with Education, Social Security and other items.
Re:Good! (Score:5, Informative)
And you'd be wrong.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/motor... [dot.gov]