Panel Urges 50% Gas Tax Increase

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By AP / JOAN LOWY

(WASHINGTON) — A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal 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 higher fuel taxes. Read "Black Gold: It's Time to Raise the Gas Tax".

With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax fail to raise enough to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

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 fuel tax by 12 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.

A tax increase on this order would 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 gas taxes in the current economic climate. But commission members said the government must find the 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.

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.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/...1869309,00.html

[YuAndDan 153]

Yep, the libs in government have been hammering the car companies, and consumers to buy and use more fuel efficient vehicles like hybrids, and when people start doing this they panic and start proposing raising taxes.

Same reasoning goes to cigarette tax punish people by raising tax then when people stop smoking, then panic about the loss of revenue.

[Ban Hammer 13,355]

Yep, the libs in government have been hammering the car companies, and consumers to buy and use more fuel efficient vehicles like hybrids, and when people start doing this they panic and start proposing raising taxes.

Same reasoning goes to cigarette tax punish people by raising tax then when people stop smoking, then panic about the loss of revenue.

some people wanted change.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Just what we need to help jump start the failing economy, a tax on gasoline. I guess since the price has dropped so much they figure no one will notice.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Where is Obama here? Blatanly blaming someone who hasn't come into power yet.

[mawilson 2,133]

A 50% increase? So the tax will increase from 18.4 cents per gallon to 27.6 cents per gallon?

Wow - God help us cope with such a massive tax hike.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Yep, the libs in government have been hammering the car companies, and consumers to buy and use more fuel efficient vehicles like hybrids, and when people start doing this they panic and start proposing raising taxes.

Same reasoning goes to cigarette tax punish people by raising tax then when people stop smoking, then panic about the loss of revenue.

How true, damed if we do, damned if we don't.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

A 50% increase? So the tax will increase from 18.4 cents per gallon to 27.6 cents per gallon?

Wow - God help us cope with such a massive tax hike.

Math will get you nowhere. The real question in how does it make you 'feel'?

stupid libruls