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Title: Gas tax should rise 25 cents to fund road repair: US Chamber of Commerce (Communists)
Source:
Green Car Reports
URL Source: https://www.greencarreports.com/new ... -repair-us-chamber-of-commerce
Published: Jan 19, 2018
Author: John Voelcker
Post Date: 2018-01-19 16:25:54 by Hondo68
Keywords: Trump, raise 50 cents, courtesy of Chevrolet, union bailout bosses
Views: 222
Comments: 7
Gas pumpEnlarge Photo It's an unusual thing, to say the least, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce publicly suggests a major tax increase. In general, the pro-business lobbying group advocates for tax cuts, reducing or eliminating regulations, and free-market policies that allow companies to operate however they choose. But there it was on Tuesday: The Chamber will propose a 25-cent-per-gallon increase in the federal tax on gasoline paid by everyone who fills up at the pump. DON'T MISS: Fuel Efficiency Hurts: Gas Tax Revenue Plummets, Roads Crumble (Nov 2011) The group intends to introduce a set of principles it believes should guide a long-overdue and comprehensive effort to upgrade the nation's roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, and other transportation infrastructure. Raising the gas tax, however, is described as an "uphill battle" in coverage of the proposal by The Washington Post. Congress last raised the U.S. federal gas tax 25 years ago in 1993, to the 18.5-cents-per-gallon level it remains at today. Diesel fuel is taxed at 24.4 cents per gallon. Chevrolet Silverado Heavy Duty drive with John Deere, Jessica Walker, courtesy of ChevroletEnlarge Photo In private meetings, President Donald Trump is reported to have proposed raising the tax as much as 50 cents a gallon—an idea that received, the Post said, a "chilly reception" among Republican leaders who control the House and the Senate. Still, a major infrastructure improvement program will require hundreds of billions of dollars of funding, and it's not otherwise clear where that money will come from. Such a proposal has been a long time coming. READ THIS: Low Gas Price An Opportunity For Higher Gas Tax? Not A Chance (Jan 2015) Over the years, numerous CEOs and corporate leaders—from Ford chairman Bill Ford to AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson—have said publicly the gas tax should rise. "The U.S. allows the price of gasoline to go back and forth across this line where the consumers don't care about fuel efficiency and where consumers do care about fuel efficiency," said Jackson in 2009. Then-General Motors board member Jerry York echoed the sentiment, suggesting to Reuters the same year the challenge of selling more fuel-efficient vehicles: "Unless gas is $3.50 or $4 a gallon, consumers are not going to want to buy those cars." Chevrolet Silverado Heavy Duty drive with John Deere, “Jessica Walker, courtesy of ChevroletEnlarge Photo Over 10 years, a 25-cent increase in the gasoline tax would raise more than $375 billion, according to the Chamber's calculations—far more than the $200 billion the Trump Administration plans to propose when or if its long-delayed infrastructure plan is released. That plan, however, is reported to use that money to incentivize private companies to invest in infrastructure repairs and expansion, presumably leading to more and higher tolls on highways, roads, bridges, and tunnels to pay them back. The corporate average fuel-economy rules passed in 2010 and 2012, covering model years 2012 through 2025—which the administration seems likely to freeze or roll back—have cut federal gas-tax revenue to the point that every single state gets more in transportation funding from the Feds than it sends in gas-tax revenue. CHECK OUT: NJ dedicates all gas tax revenue to transportation infrastructure (Nov 2016) The NHTSA and EPA, under the direction of the Trump administration, seem likely to freeze or even roll back the aligned fuel-economy rules and carbon-emission limits passed by the Obama administration. Meanwhile, the George W. Bush administration signed a bill that incentivized the purchase of plug-in electric vehicles, both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models, by giving a federal income-tax credit to buyers, based on the car's battery size. Any proposal for fuel-tax increases will likely include provisions for fees on plug-in electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which use very little or no gasoline. Gas pumpEnlarge Photo Many states have imposed such fees to make up for the state-tax revenue lost when those cars are operated. Some kept the fees at or below the revenue an average gasoline car provides; others, including Georgia, imposed electric-car fees that are punitive: the fee to the state is higher than the tax revenue it would receive from a similar gasoline-powered vehicle. Poster Comment: Apparently the Chamber Of Communists loves the gas guzzlers, so that their beloved government can ream you good with gas taxes. Nothing wrong with gas guzzling, but gov needs to cut spending and REDUCE taxes. 
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#1. To: hondo68 (#0)
It should. The hybrids and electrics are free riders in the system. But their traffic wears out roads as much as any other vehicle. The gas tax hasn't risen in decades while gas mileage has gone up (reducing the amount of gas tax per gallon and road miles per gallon have gone up to the same degree). This is an example of a rare tax increase I think they should consider. I think they could pass a 10 cent tax increase and not get too much bitching about it if people see they put that money into the roads and bridge projects.
They'll continue to waste tax money, just at a more Fast 'n Furious pace, and not fix muh roads. No matter how much they raise taxes, they'll blow it all on BIG GOV nanny state priorities like global Big Gulp SWAT enforcement, crackdowns on Rogue Amish Raw Milk bootleggers, Outlaw Lemonade Stands, Libertarian candidate Hate Speech, and Internet Bullies. Gotta have a YUUUGE central government war on everything to MAGA. Moar taxes please! It's not for roads! Yeah, they'll raise the federal gas tax a quarter just so they can bust those cute little girls with the lemonade stands. Even so, the federal gas tax is a segregated fund. That is where the money for repairs comes from. We don't take it out of the general treasury funds.
It would be far better if they simply mandated that the existing gas tax be earmarked ONLY for road construction/maintenance. Until that's done, any gas tax increase will simply be added to the general treasury as it is now.
I think that was once the case, but no longer is. I'm open to correction.
It was earmarked. For some years, you may recall that they hoarded the gas tax and wouldn't spend it all (same with the tax on air travel to improve airports and facilities). They did this to help offset other spending they wanted more than to spend the money as they had agreed to do: on roads and airports. But in the ten years or so since, the buying power of the old gas tax has declined relative to the economy and cars have better fuel efficiency. So it no longer produces a surplus at all for anyone to play budgetary bingo with to hide their other porkbarrel schemes. We need to fix those old bridges built back in the LBJ era. A lot of them were built badly and some are near crisis. Like that one that suddenly collapsed on the Canadian border a few years ago. That crap shouldn't happen in a First World country.
The federal fuel tax directly supports the federal Highway Trust Fund. It isn't all that byzantine, as federal tax schemes go. BTW, they do still steal money from the trust fund for other stuff. One might rightly suspect the Chamber is advocating for a big increase in fuel taxes because they know that Congress could easily be persuaded to redirect a lot of money to local economies as a political slush fund for incumbents. The Chamber likes Big Gooberment but it also likes stability in Congress. It's one reason they so heavily fund incumbents, making them a key funding source in both parties. IOW, typical scumbag lobbyists and swamp creatures.
Any proposal for fuel-tax increases will likely include provisions for fees on plug-in electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, which use very little or no gasoline.
#2. To: Tooconservative, MOAR taxes please, yellow brick roads (#1)
tax increase I think they should consider
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#3. To: hondo68 (#2)
They'll continue to waste tax money, just at a more Fast 'n Furious pace, and not fix muh roads. No matter how much they raise taxes, they'll blow it all on BIG GOV nanny state priorities like global Big Gulp SWAT enforcement, crackdowns on Rogue Amish Raw Milk bootleggers, Outlaw Lemonade Stands, Libertarian candidate Hate Speech, and Internet Bullies.
#4. To: hondo68 (#0)
#5. To: Tooconservative (#3)
Even so, the federal gas tax is a segregated fund.
#6. To: Pinguinite (#4)
It would be far better if they simply mandated that the existing gas tax be earmarked ONLY for road construction/maintenance.
#7. To: Pinguinite (#5)
(Edited)
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