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If you want to solve this problem this is what you do, first and foremost you have whatever transportation method it is support itself. If that means raising the fuel tax or the fares for mass transit then so be it.
Specifically for roads and bridges you eliminate all the taxes and fees that are in place now accept for the administration costs, registering my car should not cost more than a few dollars. In place of all that you implement a per mile tax based on the weight of the vehicle. This should not affect your average motorist that much but by basing it on weight it's will drastically affect the trucking industry.
What will happen is shippers are going to start looking to rail in particular for long haul freight. The cost of goods will rise however those increased costs will be spread over the entire population instead of just motorists who now subsidize everyone else. Long term taxes for road infrastructure should subside for the average motorist because they will no longer be subsidizing the trucking industry.
As some have already noted, get government out of the infrastructure business.
It makes no sense to have partisan politics and public budgets involved.
You can't hold anyone responsible, and the only remedy for mistakes is to burden the taxpayer with the costs.
Such a system is a recipe for disaster - over and over.
Government may be acceptable for securing rights and defending against enemies, but when it comes to operating services and infrastructure - EGADS!
They just imposed a gas tax in NJ, 23 cents....now, that may not sound like much, however, it adds up per gallon, now, how many people drive in NJ, do you have any idea how much money we're talking about? Do the math, and the irony is, I've seen them do that over and over again in my state, and our roads and bridges are never fixed. What they do is fix little bridges and overlay with a thin coat of blacktop so people see they are doing something.....
and, they always always impose that gas tax within a year of the elections???????
My God, people had better start asking questions and making someone accountable for all the money they thow away.
Take NJ, before PA, DE, and MD, build casinos, NJ was a boom State once again, Down the Shore became huge, people flocked in buses to NJ....for years, can you even begin to imagine how much money that state was making, and they're still broke?????? Now the Casinos are failing b/c PA, DE and MD are building casinos....all those years, they could have been fixing roads and bridges but they didn't!!!
Where does all that money go? Doesn't anyone ever ask those question, you, no, we all just keep paying it, and you gotta know, they're not doing what they should be doing?
Please people, these are simply common sense examples...wake the heck up....and yet, all the corporations want to keep our borders open to pay less wages???? How much money do these people need?
"We" don't fix anything. Infrastructure should be addressed on state and local levels and paid for by the end user.
Much of the govt disrepair statistics are based on phony ginned up numbers to make things seem more dire than they really are ($$$).
In a more perfect world, all infrastructure is privately owned and maintained.
I worked Construction, do you know how to fix a road?
You cut out the weak spots of the road, which highways are mostly concrete....then blacktopped over, so you bring in a diamond cutter, cut out the weak spots, refill with stone grade, fill the holes with concrete, and black top over top.
Our areas flood when it rains, b/c our underground wash basins haven't been replaced in years?
does anyone have any idea about out underground pipelines, water lines??????? They flood all the time?
Then when they flood and destroy homes, the city refused to pay for it, and yet, they are collecting all this money in taxes...people? Think? Where is this money going?
Concrete depending on weather and how cold it gets, how the ground heaves, concreate may last 17 - 25 years and blacktop may last 7 years
Those bridges that your driving over, are full of holes and very dangerous.
Why isn't anyone asking our states, why they are putting bandades on our roads that fall apart.
And here in PA, do you know what they do in SE PA, I can't speak for other townships, but they still waste money on tar and chipping...that is a waste of money and puts all that crap all over your car. Within one season all that stone is washed away????????
"We" don't fix anything. Infrastructure should be addressed on state and local levels.
Much of the govt disrepair statistics are based on phony ginned up numbers to make things seem more dire than they really are ($$$).
In a more perfect world, all infrastructure is privately owned and maintained.
They do address it Frank, they impose a gas tax on gas, which we've been paying for years, like they just did in NJ...23 cents...a gallon. Now, its election time, and once the new politicians get in, they squander the money on something else, we're broke, Frank, each and every state does it...when they start raising their salaries, but cut salaries on police, etc....that should be a flag...and yet, they want to keep letting all these illegals in here....we're going broke...broke, and yet, Americans refuse to get involved and realize this...
and oh yes, someone will come into this thread and claim "oh that's not true", the hell it isn't.
To be fair NJ had the lowest fuel taxes in the nation, they made up for it from other taxes. They are about average now.
yes, I agree, however, they shouldn't be hiking fuel tax, when they made all those millions and millions of dollars on the casinos, and they are still crying broke, hiking the fuel and regardless, of how long it's been, if your car or Truck is paying 23 cents a gallon, how many gallons do you use per week, multipy that by all drivers in NJ.....they should be able to fix roads and bridges within the month....but they won't...what they'll do is pretend, like I've explained, the new politicians will be voted in and boom, that money will be used somewhere else. I've seen it happen here in PA so many times it's pathetic....
and Coalman, I totally understand what your saying, but, if they'd have spent all the taxes they collect now on everything, responsibly, they wouldn't have had to impose this fuel tax.....
"We" don't fix anything. Infrastructure should be addressed on state and local levels and paid for by the end user.
Much of the govt disrepair statistics are based on phony ginned up numbers to make things seem more dire than they really are ($$$).
In a more perfect world, all infrastructure is privately owned and maintained.
I support this. All highways should be tolled. Gas taxes should be high enough to cover local roads. Fares for public transportation should be high enough to cover capital construction, operations and maintenance.
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