That's the question asked by this article from yesterday. There's something for everyone to hate hate in some of the comments from Grover Norquist and other anti-tax people.
Gas taxes shouldn't be used for transit or bicycle/pedestrian projects. (Despite the fact that these projects actually take pressure off many roads, and are a far cheaper way of moving people than single occupancy vehicles.)
Federal regulations require union labor, which of course is a waste of money. We can have unskilled labor with no negotiating power build our roads, bridges, and tunnels.
The states can do things much more efficiently, and can decide if they want to raise their own taxes to pay for transportation. Where to start on that one? I'm sure the Wisconsin governor and legislators will be glad to raise taxes and fees.... And of course, the interstate system is a federal highway system. There is a reason it is fairly predictable; you pretty much know what it's going to look and feel like regardless of what state you are in. That's because it has federal standards.
Note also that there is actually a teaser headline/link in the middle of the article that says the GM CEO wants to RAISE the gas tax $1.00 per gallon. I didn't click on that link, but it's sort of an interesting juxtaposition. That position is reiterated at the end of the article, where it notes that the US Chamber of Commerce also supports a hike in the gas tax.
This is all coming to a head, because the multi-year federal transportation bill - which is somewhere between $200 - $500 billion (yes, that's a B), is on what is known as a continuing resolution. It was supposed to be written, debated, argued over, and somehow passed in a year and a half ago. (You can go here to see the clock on how long overdue it is.) Since we can't just stop building, maintaining, and operating our roads, bridges, tunnels, transit systems, non-motorized trails, and every other surface transportation system, Congress keeps extending the current bill, with all it's current policies and programs by six months at a time to keep the money flowing and the system working. The most recent continuing resolution will run out at the end of September.
Cue the scary music.
Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts
Friday, August 5, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Raise the federal gas tax!
If you already understand federal funding for surface transportation, please excuse some simplification in the explanation below. But if you understand transportation funding, you also understand that is too complex for a simple blog post.
Each year I attend the National Bike Summit, a conference/lobbying trip in Washington, DC to talk about bicycling with our legislators. I'm not going to bore you to death with the minutiae of transportation funding or the federal process, if you want an overview of the current legislation, you can go here. But there are a few critical points to understanding what is going on.
1. The federal government generally passes a multi-year transportation bill so that states and local governments can plan for the big projects that are funded with this pot of money. If you are going to spend $1 billion on upgrading the SE Wisconsin freeway system - including the $810 million Marquette Interchange - you don't want to be guessing what the feds are going to do year to year.
2. The current 5-6 year bill expired a year ago, and to keep the money flowing the feds have passed a series of what are known as a continuing resolutions. These basically continue the same funding programs, at the same levels, for as long as these short-term pieces of legislation last, typically 3-6 months. When the bill expired last March, no one wanted to touch the bill before the mid-term elections, so they just kicked the can down the road. (Pun intended.)
Why didn't anyone want to deal with the transportation bill before the mid-term elections?
3. The not-so-secret secret is that there's just not enough money under the current system, and no one wants to change the system. For most surface transportation (not air) the funding comes from the Highway Trust Fund, i.e. the federal gas tax. And there just isn't enough money coming in to pay for all the programs - mostly roads - that the American public wants.
(And please spare me any talk that getting rid of "frills" like Safe Routes to School, bike and pedestrian programs, or CMAQ will solve this problem. Those programs are such a tiny sliver of all the federal funding that they can't even be seen on the pie chart. It's like trying to solve the federal budget deficit by getting rid of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.)
No elected official, right, left, center, or anywhere in between, wants to raise the gas tax. But the federal gas tax hasn't been changed for almost 20 years - since 1993. To make matters worse, the gas tax is based on volume, not a percentage of sales, that is, you are paying the same tax in April 2011, when gas is averaging $3.80/gal as you were in 1993, when gas was averaging $1.10/gal.
Cars are getting more fuel efficient, but people are driving way more than they were in 1993, and they are demanding bigger, smoother, faster roads, and those cost buckets, nay barges full of money. The gas tax at 18.4 cents/gal just isn't going to cut it. All those roads that we have been building for the last 55 years - since we started building the Interstate Highway System in 1956 and launched the car-based society - are falling apart. They need to be fixed, but at the same time we are all demanding that new roads be built, or current roads expanded.
There is simply no way that we can continue with this system unless the gas tax is raised. Many people, myself included, will argue that continuing to plan for a car-based system for personal travel is an insane idea for all sorts of reasons. But it has taken us decades to get into this mess, and it is not going to be solved overnight. We need a transition plan until we can build a transportation system that allows people to live their daily lives without getting in a car every day. Individuals, families, businesses, and communities are also going to have to make some changes to move away from a car-based transportation and planning mindset.
And it is going to cost money to build that system. So we need to raise the federal gas tax but also start looking at other sources of funding for mass transit, intercity rail, upgrades to freight rail, and multi-modal facilities.
Although no elected official wants to "raise taxes," because they are afraid it will stall the economy (or they won't get re-elected), we could raise the gas tax by a nickel a year for the next 10 years, and no one would notice it in the price they pay at the pump! Sure, the media would make sure everyone knows the tax is going up, but with the volatility in gas prices, the federal tax is a drop in the oil drum. Besides, gas taxes are user fees, and aren't conservatives usually all for making people pay for what they use?
So, raise the federal gas tax. Two cents a year for the next 10 years would keep things going the way they are. Five cents a year for the ten years might actually allow us to start building a transportation system with some choices for those that don't want to drive everywhere, and in addition provide a tiny disincentive to drive so much. Gas prices have jumped 20 cents in the last week, and 75 cents since January 1. Does anyone think people are going to notice a nickel a gallon?
Each year I attend the National Bike Summit, a conference/lobbying trip in Washington, DC to talk about bicycling with our legislators. I'm not going to bore you to death with the minutiae of transportation funding or the federal process, if you want an overview of the current legislation, you can go here. But there are a few critical points to understanding what is going on.
1. The federal government generally passes a multi-year transportation bill so that states and local governments can plan for the big projects that are funded with this pot of money. If you are going to spend $1 billion on upgrading the SE Wisconsin freeway system - including the $810 million Marquette Interchange - you don't want to be guessing what the feds are going to do year to year.
2. The current 5-6 year bill expired a year ago, and to keep the money flowing the feds have passed a series of what are known as a continuing resolutions. These basically continue the same funding programs, at the same levels, for as long as these short-term pieces of legislation last, typically 3-6 months. When the bill expired last March, no one wanted to touch the bill before the mid-term elections, so they just kicked the can down the road. (Pun intended.)
Why didn't anyone want to deal with the transportation bill before the mid-term elections?
3. The not-so-secret secret is that there's just not enough money under the current system, and no one wants to change the system. For most surface transportation (not air) the funding comes from the Highway Trust Fund, i.e. the federal gas tax. And there just isn't enough money coming in to pay for all the programs - mostly roads - that the American public wants.
(And please spare me any talk that getting rid of "frills" like Safe Routes to School, bike and pedestrian programs, or CMAQ will solve this problem. Those programs are such a tiny sliver of all the federal funding that they can't even be seen on the pie chart. It's like trying to solve the federal budget deficit by getting rid of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.)
No elected official, right, left, center, or anywhere in between, wants to raise the gas tax. But the federal gas tax hasn't been changed for almost 20 years - since 1993. To make matters worse, the gas tax is based on volume, not a percentage of sales, that is, you are paying the same tax in April 2011, when gas is averaging $3.80/gal as you were in 1993, when gas was averaging $1.10/gal.
Cars are getting more fuel efficient, but people are driving way more than they were in 1993, and they are demanding bigger, smoother, faster roads, and those cost buckets, nay barges full of money. The gas tax at 18.4 cents/gal just isn't going to cut it. All those roads that we have been building for the last 55 years - since we started building the Interstate Highway System in 1956 and launched the car-based society - are falling apart. They need to be fixed, but at the same time we are all demanding that new roads be built, or current roads expanded.
There is simply no way that we can continue with this system unless the gas tax is raised. Many people, myself included, will argue that continuing to plan for a car-based system for personal travel is an insane idea for all sorts of reasons. But it has taken us decades to get into this mess, and it is not going to be solved overnight. We need a transition plan until we can build a transportation system that allows people to live their daily lives without getting in a car every day. Individuals, families, businesses, and communities are also going to have to make some changes to move away from a car-based transportation and planning mindset.
And it is going to cost money to build that system. So we need to raise the federal gas tax but also start looking at other sources of funding for mass transit, intercity rail, upgrades to freight rail, and multi-modal facilities.
Although no elected official wants to "raise taxes," because they are afraid it will stall the economy (or they won't get re-elected), we could raise the gas tax by a nickel a year for the next 10 years, and no one would notice it in the price they pay at the pump! Sure, the media would make sure everyone knows the tax is going up, but with the volatility in gas prices, the federal tax is a drop in the oil drum. Besides, gas taxes are user fees, and aren't conservatives usually all for making people pay for what they use?
So, raise the federal gas tax. Two cents a year for the next 10 years would keep things going the way they are. Five cents a year for the ten years might actually allow us to start building a transportation system with some choices for those that don't want to drive everywhere, and in addition provide a tiny disincentive to drive so much. Gas prices have jumped 20 cents in the last week, and 75 cents since January 1. Does anyone think people are going to notice a nickel a gallon?
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
My letter to Scott Walker on rail
Although lots of people are calling and emailing Doyle and Walker to support the Madison-Milwaukee extension of rail service, I thought a person, hard copy, snail letter might be a good idea. Below you can see my letter Walker.
Monday, August 16, 2010
RTA vs. MATC "unelected" officials - be consistent in criticism
One of the criticisms of the RTA seems to be that there is an unelected board with the power to set taxes. Yet people fail to complain about the MATC Board, which is also unelected, and also can levy taxes.
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