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You can't call that a true subsidy then. It's actually repaying money that has been diverted from a supposedly locked fund to other uses.
We're seeing that in Maryland with both roads and the State Pension System. There was a pot of money just lying in them and the previous Administrations (and Legislatures) just couldn't keep their hands off it.
I will say that while previous Governors raided the highway fund, among others, Gov. O'Malley was the first to raid the pension funds. Took out over a billion dollars (40% of the total).
Then current Governor, a Republican, and the Democrat dominated Legislature are now locked in a battle to pay the pension money back. The Governor wants to and the Legislature doesn't, at least not at the proposed rate.
Public pensions will be the next major bailout. Pensions have been raided/underfunded for decades and transportation funds have been raided as well.
We simply can't afford to keep our promises in regards to pension as they are preventing us from spending money on our infrastructure.
The highway fund was running a surplus for decades and now it's "broke". Had they not been allocating significant funds to mass transit we would have better highways, a surplus or both.
And what's wrong with allocating funds to mass transit? Just because you don't like or use it?
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The gas tax hasn't gone up since the mid nineties and no politician left or right wants to touch it with ten foot pole, this is the back door measure to raise the gas tax. The media will pawn it off as tax on the oil industry. I'd actually support it IF every dime was going to road infrastructure.
Why do you want to promote inefficiency and waste?
Would you be fine with just a mass transit tax that everyone pays in addition to user fees?
See, the thing in Maryland was that the pension system was fully funded out to 2060 until O'Malley got his hands on it.
So was the highway fund (2040) except he refused to spend money from it on anything but transit (and the other things he diverted it to).
Ah. Well Texas is just simply in a different boat. It is geographically large but has pretty much the entire population living in 5 metro areas and our pensions at the state and local levels have been underfunded.
My grandparents from Greece didn't have to worry about any of that when they settled in Texas from Greece.
How did they track such things in the first part of the 20th century?
Through any of the ports with immigration offices at the time: Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. Anyone immigrating at the time was questioned by an official and had to meet the criteria.
Again... what's your point? All you are describing is the taxes that you are paying that goes to many different things.
Then you would agree roads are not subsidized but instead are helping to subsidize other things. Without roads that massive amount of tax revenue would not exist.
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When you are robbing Peter to Paul, no.
Yet this is exactly what you are advocating for. Here's an idea, lets jack the fares up on mass transit and we can use that to subsidize the roads, just think of all the wonderful roads we could have. This is the same lame argument you are making.
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And roads also require a massive amount of capital to build and maintain.
Which is more than paid for by the revenue generated.
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If roads/automobile and mass transit (which is more than rail) were legislated and funded equally then you would have a point.
They are not funded equally because mass transit cannot even pay for itself let alone subsidize something else.
.... and transportation funds have been raided as well.
The primary beneficiary of raiding the Highway Trust fund has been mass transit, note that is Highway trust fund. You are arguing two sides of the same coin. It's bit hypocritical to complain about transportation funding being raided and then advocate for raiding highway funds for mass transit.
Can Barry sign a EO to increase this tax? Didn't think so. He's just pandering to his base.
This is carefully calculated, firstly it's not a gas tax but instead they will sell it as a tax on the oil industry as if the motoring public is not going to be picking up the tab. Secondly it won't be counted as revenue generated from vehicles so people like dv1033 can naively go on saying roads are subsidized.
Can Barry sign a EO to increase this tax? Didn't think so. He's just pandering to his base.
Think again. According to Gerald Ford, who did the same thing in 1975, it's within Presidential authority:
This is from Ford's 1975 State of the Union Address:
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Therefore, I am using Presidential powers to raise the fee on all imported crude oil and petroleum products. The crude oil fee level will be increased $1 per barrel on February 1, by $2 per barrel on March 1, and by $3 per barrel on April 1. I will take actions to reduce undue hardships on any geographical region.
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Originally Posted by thecoalman
This is carefully calculated, firstly it's not a gas tax but instead they will sell it as a tax on the oil industry as if the motoring public is not going to be picking up the tab. Secondly it won't be counted as revenue generated from vehicles so people like dv1033 can naively go on saying roads are subsidized.
You can assign whatever sinister motives you want. The reality is that this is something the President can do within his own authority. Raising the gas tax needs Congressional approval, which this Congress won't do.
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