PA already has the highest fuel prices and it is going even higher by .08 (Pittsburgh: contractors, income)

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Except the comparison is to Ohio who with just a short distance away has much cheaper fuel prices.

Ohio is neglecting its roads under the Republicans. The Republicans also leveraged the Ohio Turnpike to fund road projects throughout the state. This is a massive hidden tax on the northern Ohio economy.

The Republican no new tax pledges are deadly for infrastructure and deferred maintenance is a disaster. This is also an issue for the federal government, where the federal gasoline tax has fallen far behind inflation. It appears that the Trump infrastructure plan may depend on many more tolls.

Only after a series of serious chain reaction crashes on I-90 east of Cleveland, did the Ohio Department of Transportation step up road treatments and install new flashing reduced speed warnings on the most dangerous stretches.

[bradjl2009]

The comments on social media local news pages about this as always, never fail to not showcase Western PA's dumbest citizens. There were too many to count who were blaming this on Wolf (despite it being signed into law by Corbett in 2013) and then when you'd point that out, they refuted he's the governor like he could he can get rid of the tax or a law whenever he wants. No you fools, a governor can't just change or repeal a law on their own as we have this thing called separation of powers in democratic nations so one branch of government can't just do whatever it wants. We don't live in a dictatorship where one person can repeal, make, or change laws.......

[Lost_In_Translation]

I don't mind gas taxes or sales taxes, at least they tax my use of things rather than the wage tax that taxes my ability to make money. Ditch the wage and state income tax and tax goods and services to make up the difference.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

I don't mind gas taxes or sales taxes, at least they tax my use of things rather than the wage tax that taxes my ability to make money. Ditch the wage and state income tax and tax goods and services to make up the difference.

Converting to a taxation system primarily focused on taxing goods and services is very regressive. A balanced system is key. You will find people who oppose any taxes, hate real estate taxes, want a flat income tax, etc. It is impossible to keep everyone happy and also be fair at the same time.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

Converting to a taxation system primarily focused on taxing goods and services is very regressive. A balanced system is key. You will find people who oppose any taxes, hate real estate taxes, want a flat income tax, etc. It is impossible to keep everyone happy and also be fair at the same time.

Yes, everyone wants more government and no one wants to pay for it. Ideally we need to think of spending less and more efficiently for government, but punishing people for risk taking and success hardly seems even close to fair, especially when there are a favored few that get to game the system to take the bite out.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Ideally we need to think of spending less and more efficiently for government.

Agreed.

Believe it or not, my primary role right now is to work on evaluating solutions addressing the efficiency issue for one of the most costly entitlement programs funded by our taxes. These are some insanely complicated issues that will have major downstream impacts when changes are made. I wish I could talk more about it, but I really can't in a public forum. The work is extremely interesting.

[gg]

I think people are missing the most important point. PA has by far the highest fuel tax in the US. It isn't even close. I posted a map and no comments on comparing PA to other states. No neighboring state is even close to PA and NY is the third worst, yet still .16 a gallon less after the increase. NJ is only .14 compared to PA at almost .58. What gives?

[Lost_In_Translation]

So? PA has a lot of bridges and roads to fix. It's expensive to live in a mountainous, populated state with a brutal yearly freeze/thaw cycle. PENDOT is expensive and maybe it should t be, but this is how they raise money to fund it.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by gg

I think people are missing the most important point. PA has by far the highest fuel tax in the US. It isn't even close. I posted a map and no comments on comparing PA to other states. No neighboring state is even close to PA and NY is the third worst, yet still .16 a gallon less after the increase. NJ is only .14 compared to PA at almost .58. What gives?

NJ had a big jump in gas taxes back in October up to 37.5 cents so their cheap gas is gone now. PA has the 5th largest network of roads in the country despite being only 33rd in size, we have a lot to maintain.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

So? PA has a lot of bridges and roads to fix. It's expensive to live in a mountainous, populated state with a brutal yearly freeze/thaw cycle. PENDOT is expensive and maybe it should t be, but this is how they raise money to fund it.

It just adds to the climate in PA. I don't think our state will ever really grow.

http://interactive.taxfoundation.org...historic-norms

http://interactive.taxfoundation.org...ncome-tax-rate