Thread: Raise gasoline tax by 10 cents, Congress urged

WASHINGTON - Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren't raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

That has the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation talking about increasing the federal fuel tax.

A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.


The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for increasing the current 18.4 cents a gallon federal tax on gasoline and the 24.4 cents a gallon tax on diesel. State fuel taxes vary from state to state.

In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel tax by 12 cents to 15 cents a gallon. At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation.

The commission will also recommend that states raise their fuel taxes and make greater use of toll roads and fees for rush-hour driving.

Deteriorating roads
Although the cost of gasoline has dropped dramatically in recent months, such tax increases could be politically treacherous for Democratic leaders in Congress. A gas tax hike was one of the reasons they lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed concern about raising fuel taxes in the current economic climate.

But commission members said the government must find more road and bridge building money somewhere.

"I'm not excited about a gas tax increase, but the reality is our current gas tax doesn't pay for upkeep of the system we have now," said Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles, and a member of the highway revenue commission. "We can either let the roads go to hell or we can pay more."

The dilemma for Congress is that highway and transit programs are dependent for revenue on fuel taxes that are not sustainable. Many Americans are driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and a shift to new fuels and technologies like plug-in hybrid electric cars will further erode gasoline sales.

According to a draft of the financing commission's recommendations, the nation needs to move to a new system that taxes motorists according to how much they use roads.

"Most if not all of the commissioners have a strong belief and commitment that we need a fundamental transformation of the current system," said commission chairman Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank in Washington.

Revenue gap
A study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies estimated that the annual gap between revenues and the investment needed to improve highway and transit systems was about $105 billion in 2007, and will increase to $134 billion in 2017 under current trends.

Projected shortfalls in revenue led the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, in a report issued in January 2008, to call for an increase of as much as 40 cents a gallon in the gas tax, phased in over five years.


Charles Whittington, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, which supports a fuel tax increase as long as the money goes to highway projects, said Congress may decide to disguise a fuel tax hike as a surcharge to combat climate change.

Transportation is responsible for about a third of all U.S. carbon emissions created by burning fossil fuels. Traffic congestion wastes an estimated 2.9 billion gallons of fuel a year. Less congestion would reduce greenhouse gases and dependence on foreign oil.

"Instead of calling it a gas tax, call it a carbon tax," Whittington said.

Bottlenecks around the nation cost the trucking industry about 243 million lost truck hours and about $7.8 billion per year, according to the commission.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28467755/

hahahahahaha it's all a game on how to make Mo Money, with Yo Money

Hey wacko's ... ya can't get blood out of a turnup ... we are Tax'ed way beyond our ability to pay for more roads than we actually need.

It is truly time for a TAX revolt and to put the corruption on trial

matter of fact... The Suprano's need to learn from these crooks in DC as they seem to be the subject matter experts on how to defraud the American People

The darn government in general has grown to the point that we just can't afford the cost of it. The operations costs are so great that to much of the money collected through legal and illegal taxation isn't enough anymore.

Sorry to say it, but the "socialistic" programs that government sponsors, and it's employees needs to be done away with. Although utopian in ideology, they impracticle in practice.

The trouble is, getting them to understand that this is what needs to happen. When the Federal Reserve gives government an unlimited credit rating that they can borrow from, it is really limited by what the people can pay through illegal taxation. And the fact that the government has grown beyond it's zienith, and anything else created above what was had during the Eisenhower term, has increasingly given deminishing returns. Why? The cost of operating said departments.

Now that makes a lot of sense, we can't afford to drive so they are going to tax us more so they can fix the roads we can't afford to drive on.
Is this a Jay Leno joke?

Hylander_1314 wrote:

The darn government in general has grown to the point that we just can't afford the cost of it. The operations costs are so great that to much of the money collected through legal and illegal taxation isn't enough anymore.

It's expensive to take care of the worlds poverty stricken nations and maintain two wars. Not only are our jobs being outsourced, so are a lot of our tax dollars. Furthermore, we all know how great the cost to take care of the aliens residing illegally in our country.

The amount of tax dollars our government has to operate isn't the problem, it's the misuse of those dollars that is the problem.

Originally Posted by MountainDog

Now that makes a lot of sense, we can't afford to drive so they are going to tax us more so they can fix the roads we can't afford to drive on.
Is this a Jay Leno joke?

Unfortunately for us no and this is only they beginning, they are going to make sure they tax the ones of us left with a income into the ground.

In California Arnold wants a 39 cent per gallon tax, that's on top of all the other increases he supports. But he's going to fight the special interest groups?, yeah sure.