Sales tax increase for road work to be put on November ballot.... (Kansas City: 2014, transfer)

[marigolds6]

Originally Posted by Flyover_Country

I do not want the money ... used for "transportation in general" which means it nearly all gets lost to hugely expensive boondoggles like the Metrolink choo-choos or Bi-State buses in St. Louis that run empty or close to it.

I don't think you have to worry about that. St Louis Metro has historically receive the least state funding of any metro transit system in the entire country. That is never going to change unless Missouri becomes a dramatically different state.

[marigolds6]

Originally Posted by Flyover_Country

Frank, massively increasing licensing fees for heavy trucks to pay for road maintenance and construction would cause *other* issues in addition to simply higher prices....

Many other states already do exactly this and have seen none of the effects you are describing. Why is that? (Hint: International Registration Plan)

[Flyover_Country]

Originally Posted by marigolds6

I don't think you have to worry about that. St Louis Metro has historically receive the least state funding of any metro transit system in the entire country. That is never going to change unless Missouri becomes a dramatically different state.

But yet there are still many sales tax proposals over the years to fund the Metrolink choo-choos. These are a couple of the first few search engine results:

KWMU: Council considers new MetroLink tax (2007-11-13)

The St. Louis Metrolink Tax: Where Did All the Money Go?

[FrankMiller]

Originally Posted by Flyover_Country

People need to think for a second about the downstream consequences of various actions before they are implemented. That appears to be a major issue with liberals in particular as we can easily see a blatant lack of thought of secondary consequences with pieces of ill-conceived liberal legislation like Obamacare.

It's funny how somehow "secondary consequences" never matter when those consequences are "the poorest third of Americans can only afford to eat cat food*", but only matter when they impact businesses.

*Obviously I'm being facetious; poor people can't afford cat food.

[marigolds6]

Originally Posted by Flyover_Country

But yet there are still many sales tax proposals over the years to fund the Metrolink choo-choos. These are a couple of the first few search engine results:

KWMU: Council considers new MetroLink tax (2007-11-13)

The St. Louis Metrolink Tax: Where Did All the Money Go?

Did you actually read your links or post the first thing you found on google?
"The St. Louis County Council"
"Voters in the city and county of St. Louis"

[Flyover_Country]

Of course I read it. Don't you think that maybe, just maybe the politicians and voters in St. Louis city/county (which comprises a good chunk of the state's population) might decide to make a statewide sales tax support something that they've tried to fund locally for years? Hmmmm...

[FrankMiller]

If you think politicians in Jeff City want to raise taxes and plow it into StL transit, I want to live in your version of Missouri.

[Flyover_Country]

Originally Posted by FrankMiller

It's funny how somehow "secondary consequences" never matter when those consequences are "the poorest third of Americans can only afford to eat cat food*", but only matter when they impact businesses.

*Obviously I'm being facetious; poor people can't afford cat food.

Yes, the old "the conservatives say let them eat cat/dog food" argument. Classic liberal response to whenever anybody dares to diminish the constant rate of increase of entitlement programs. That and "why do you hate {police|firefighters|poor people}" and also "those evil rich people need to pay more!"

The reality is that obesity is one of the major health issues in the nation today and that's due to an excess of calories. We also have about 1/6 of the nation (and Missouri as well- 15.6% as of late 2013) on food stamps. You know, those food stamps people often trade outside of the gas station for money to buy their liquor, lottery tickets, and cigarettes with. Or the ones that they use to buy food with so that they can buy cigarettes, lottery tickets, and booze with cash. (My wife used to work in a grocery store in KC, she saw this happen extremely frequently.) There isn't widespread starvation going on in the country regardless of what MSNBC tells you.

Now back to the topic, the sales tax is a much better idea than an income tax for funding roads. The vast majority of people in the state would be both using the roads and paying the sales taxes rather than income taxes primarily coming from a relatively small number of people yet nearly everybody using the roads.

[FrankMiller]

Originally Posted by Flyover_Country

those food stamps people often trade outside of the gas station for money to buy their liquor, lottery tickets, and cigarettes with.

(Citation Needed)

Originally Posted by Flyover_Country

The reality is that obesity is one of the major health issues in the nation today and that's due to an excess of calories. [...] There isn't widespread starvation going on in the country regardless of what MSNBC tells you.

Actually, obesity is positively correlated with food insecurity as evidenced by numerous studies, so you're working against your own point here.

Originally Posted by Flyover_Country

Now back to the topic, the sales tax is a much better idea than an income tax for funding roads. The vast majority of people in the state would be both using the roads and paying the sales taxes rather than income taxes primarily coming from a relatively small number of people yet nearly everybody using the roads.

Basically all income the rich earn is a function of our country's infrastructure. How many billionaires do you see in rural towns with no roads? They should pay a disproportionately high tax to fund the society they disproportionately benefit from. Forcing millions of people to scrape by in poverty and disallow them from accessing the wealth of the nation, and then forcing them to bear the burden of paying for everything, makes no sense whatsoever. We should make it a policy to soak the rich and use their money to pay for the good of society, until the wealthiest 1% own less then half the wealth. Then we would be living in something like a democracy again.

[20yrsinBranson]

Considering that there isn't a major road in Springfield that is not currently under construction, it looks to me like they have plenty of money already.

20yrsinBranson