Advocacy & Safety - No more Highway funds...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090602/ap_on_go_co/us_highway_money

Looks like the federal hiway funds are running out...

Maybe it's time to consider other forms of transit.

Of course you and I know that the gov'ment will just print more money and keep adding more lanes...

But it is interesting that in 2007 the reduction in driving and gas use was enough to put a serious dent in the budget. Wonder what happens as vehicles use less gas, or no gas?

Will we as a nation finally start to wise up, regarding our choice of transportation?

Especially now that China is going to be making Hummers... :twitchy:

But it is interesting that in 2007 the reduction in driving and gas use was enough to put a serious dent in the budget. Wonder what happens as vehicles use less gas, or no gas?

That's an easy one. If the government sees less revenue as a result of reduced consumption, taxes go up.

That's an easy one. If the government sees less revenue as a result of reduced consumption, taxes go up.

+1
And if that doesn't cover it they will make up new taxes like congestion tax, freedom hiway or whatever.

Well, if they can't afford highways, they won't be able to afford afford public transportation either.

I guess that leaves ride-sharing, living closer to work, walking, cycling, and unlicensed minibuses/jitneys.

Well, if they can't afford highways, they won't be able to afford afford public transportation either.

I guess that leaves ride-sharing, living closer to work, walking, cycling, and unlicensed minibuses/jitneys.

No looks like they want to charge by the mile, so electric cars, or anything on the road will be charged to fund more road building. Maybe they should do both mileage tax and gasoline (carbon) tax.


Their top recommendation was to tax motorists based on how many miles they drive. That would require equipping cars and trucks with devices that use GPS technology to record not only how many miles the vehicle was driven, but whether the driving occurred on interstate highways or secondary roads and whether it was during peak travel periods. The device would calculate the amount of tax owed and the bill could be downloaded.

A mileage-based tax system would take about 10 years to implement.

Anybody else have a problem with the suggestion at the end of the article? A GPS device used to track mileage.

Call me paranoid, but I would refuse to put a government licensed device in my car that tracks my mileage based on GPS. Who is to say that the device isn't tracking my location? Not to mention, a device like that would be hard to implement on older cars in such a way it couldn't be deactivated. What keeps me from running the device only 10% of the time I drive?

I say, tax more on gas until that stops working.

The answer is really simple - stop wasteful spending!

In terms of wasteful spending, yes there is definitely some out there. The problem is that budget cuts are never popular, yet are essential sooner or later if Uncle Sam's ever going to get his fiscal house in order. The two biggies that people tend not to have the guts to touch. (1) The military budget, which is almost as large as that of all other countries of the world combined. (2) Health-care, although maybe, just maybe, we're finally going to do something about that.

Now, speaking of the highway trust fund, yes raising the gas tax is the simplest solution. Alternatively, raise the price of car plates. If everyone started cycling, then I wouldn't have a problem instituting a specific tax on bikes and bike parts. The GPS idea is horrible, as best explained by the economist at about.com. He points out that it not only has privacy issues, but that the cost of collection are going to be huge. That money (going to GPS) can much better go toward the roads to begin with.

Anybody else have a problem with the suggestion at the end of the article? A GPS device used to track mileage.

Call me paranoid, but I would refuse to put a government licensed device in my car that tracks my mileage based on GPS. Who is to say that the device isn't tracking my location? Not to mention, a device like that would be hard to implement on older cars in such a way it couldn't be deactivated. What keeps me from running the device only 10% of the time I drive?

I say, tax more on gas until that stops working.

We already have that, Onstar* and they try to sell it as a elite service to open your doors if you get locked out and call for service if you get stuck or need a oil change :). That's why you keep adding taxes to make it work, you don't remove the gasoline tax. :)

The idea itself isn't too bad if everyone goes electric or better fuel mileage in the future, but the drop in current tax revenue is from people driving LESS mileage, carpool, bike, masstransit etc... and hence mileage tax wouldn't have fared better then the current gasoline tax.

charge mileage based tax when tabs are renewed. i get my emissions checked, the mileage could get recorded at the same time as the emissions test. no gps required.

charge mileage based tax when tabs are renewed. i get my emissions checked, the mileage could get recorded at the same time as the emissions test. no gps required.

Thankfully here in Ky. we ran the E test people out of the state, so that would not work for us.

What keeps me from running the device only 10% of the time I drive?

Or from charging you if you put the vehicle on a trailer and tow it?

-Kurt

Highway Funds get reauthorized every 6 years and the last authorization expires late this year. So it is not so much highway funds running out as it is time to reauthorize more funds.

the gps thing is stupid, the gas tax as it is works fine as a mileage tax. They really need to tax trucks more, and probably increase the gas tax some.

Gas tax really needs to be percentage based to keep pace with inflation but that will go over like a lead balloon. The gps thingy is a cute gimmick to make all vehicles regardless of fuel efficiency pay the same rate per mile and it will help better distribute funds to where and on what type of roads people are driving.

the thing is, society should encourage fuel efficient cars. The gas tax does this to some degree. The GPS system would be expensive and redundant. I suspect any politician that voted for it would be removed from office. I can't believe that there are politicians that are gutsy enough to even mention it as a possible approach.

The gas tax concept is nearing the end of it's natural life because cars in the near future will be totally electric avoiding the tax altogether. This is the reason we need to sell off the highways altogher and start tolling them with a national "EasyPass" type system. There's no way you're going to increase gas taxes to cover the ever increasing highway trust fund. Raising the gas tax can only be done when democrates are in office and even they are scared to death doing so because it costs votes!

It a sad comment when you think we have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building roads and bridges to no-where because our auto-centric transport system is a jobs work program that employs tens of thousands of people. The whole thing is vicious circle where you have to build more roads to create more jobs, raising taxes all along the way. You can never stop or decrease the spending.

Here's what's going to happen.

1. Transit funds will get cut or eliminated -- This is coming folks and we saw it first hand and states across the nation cut their transit funds to keep building more highways. It was more important to build roads and keep thousands employed than provide bus or train service for the poor. Once all the transit funds are eliminated, step two will take place.

2. States will borrow up to their eyeballs ---- We seen this one too as states are borrowing millions just to keep the new construction going. Where do you think the 10 Billion the government needs for new roads is going to need coming from?

3. Property taxes are next --- We are seeing this too as local towns are raising property taxes to pay just for maintenance. We're not going to see utility taxes go up to pay for all those "electric" cars so the burden will fall on the property owner. This happened to my town as repaving cost are going sky high!

let them do what they wanna do. just make them sure that their plans is good.