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Nice article on exploring ending the massive government subsidies received by elite suburban drivers. Tolling would allow local communities to generate revenue they can use to develop transit infrastructure.
Funny the article did not mention about "elite suburban drivers" at all. What the article did mention was the fact that rural communities in places like Montana could never hope to pay for roads with tolls, that Missouri would forego decades of transportation maintaince if the option of tolls did not exist and perhaps most telling -"Liberal Democrats oppose [tolls on interstares] it for populist reasons, arguing that it's an onerous fee that low-income Americans can't afford".
Maybe if folks that have a chip on the shoulder about cars would get their facts it would further their cause...
Love it, the person pushing for this "great idea" is representing those who will profit from it, toll operating companies.
The article talks about the Highway Trust fund running out of money, yet one of the Fund's accounts funds mass transit, which receives 17% of the fund's revenue.
So the solution is one of three things:
- Stop subsidizing mass transit.
- Increase the gas tax.
- Or just spend the money it has, which spending the money it has is a gov wide problem, give more money, the gov will find even more things to spend it on, of course justifying every penny of it as being "needed", when in fact a lot of it is just pet projects for politicians.
Love it, the person pushing for this "great idea" is representing those who will profit from it, toll operating companies.
The article talks about the Highway Trust fund running out of money, yet one of the Fund's accounts funds mass transit, which receives 17% of the fund's revenue.
So the solution is one of three things:
- Stop subsidizing mass transit.
- Increase the gas tax.
- Or just spend the money it has, which spending the money it has is a gov wide problem, give more money, the gov will find even more things to spend it on, of course justifying every penny of it as being "needed", when in fact a lot of it is just pet projects for politicians.
- Stop funding deficit reduction.
If you stopped funding deficit reduction and mass transit, the Highway Trust Fund would probably be close enough to fully fund to just do the spend the money it has option.
Another idea would be to put a dollar surcharge on the fare of any transit project built with federal funds coming from the trust.
Nice article on exploring ending the massive government subsidies received by elite suburban drivers. Tolling would allow local communities to generate revenue they can use to develop transit infrastructure.
The money collected with tolls should be used to pay for the construction, maintenance, and operations of the infrastructure on which the toll is being collected. In this case, the interstate highway system. I would gladly pay such a toll provided it was for those purposes.
[transit infrastructure should pay its own way and not rely on the money collected from other modes of transport]
The money collected with tolls should be used to pay for the construction, maintenance, and operations of the infrastructure on which the toll is being collected. In this case, the interstate highway system. I would gladly pay such a toll provided it was for those purposes.
[transit infrastructure should pay its own way and not rely on the money collected from other modes of transport]
The gas tax needs to be dropped, though it pays for about half the cost of highway maintenance. Furthermore electric cars, which many believe are evil, don't pay it. Change to a Vehicle Miles Traveled tax. Make it high enough to pay almost all the cost.
We don't need tax disincentives for buying electric cars. The gas tax works. Raise it. Adding a miles traveled tax would be viable if it could be reasonably tracked without creating more work for legitimate tax payers. Do you really want to have people disconnecting their odometers as a hobby? I don't see this as a very viable method due to fraud and the work to fight fraud, though I would otherwise support it as an addition to the system.
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