Rendell releases transportation plan (Pittsburgh, Penn: vehicle registration, house, casino)

[BrianTH]

Here is a press release:

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell, Transportation Secretary Outline Options to Generate $1 Billion to Fix Ailing State, Local Transportation Systems - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100823/pl_usnw/DC53741_1 - broken link)

Key excerpt:

Following the Governor's remarks, Biehler addressed a joint, bipartisan meeting of the House and Senate to outline two options that could be implemented this fall and in place by January. The measures would raise nearly $1 billion in the first full fiscal year and cost the average Pennsylvania driver approximately 33 cents per week:

* An 8 percent tax on the gross profits of oil companies doing business in Pennsylvania. Companies paying the tax would be exempt from the 9.99 percent Corporate Net Income tax. The new oil company tax would raise $576 million the first full fiscal year. Oil companies would be legally barred from passing the increase on to consumers.

* Increasing a variety of license, registration and vehicle fees, some of which have not been raised since 1977. For example, the four-year drivers' license fee would increase from $21 to $25 (the $7 photo charge would remain unchanged). The annual registration fee for a passenger car would increase from $36 to $49. The fee for a certificate of title would increase from $22.50 to $31.

So no increase in the gasoline tax--I guess that was deemed too politically poisonous.

Edit: PG coverage here:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10235/1082085-100.stm

[Honest Bob]

An 8 percent tax on the gross profits of oil companies doing business in Pennsylvania. Companies paying the tax would be exempt from the 9.99 percent Corporate Net Income tax. The new oil company tax would raise $576 million the first full fiscal year. Oil companies would be legally barred from passing the increase on to consumers.

How do you think that oil companies makes a profit.

Any accountant will tell you that you have a ledger, on one side you have the debits and on the other side you have the asset's.

When the debits are larger then the asset's - you either have to raise your prices or go out of business.

When you drop one tax and lower the tax and stick it back to them, someone somewhere still looses the 1.99% tax that was dropped. All his plan does is gets the tax on the books, once it is on the books, they can raise the tax as much as they want to.

My opinion is - no new taxes.

The license fee - is still nothing more then a tax.

Rendell is already showing us - that he can raise the price of the taxes already on the books when the threatens to raise the price of the drivers license and the vehicle registration and the title fee's.

So either he sticks it to us all at once, or he sticks it to us a little at a time. A person who only drives a couple of miles a week, it isn't going to hurt too much. A person who has to drive 80 miles each way for work everyday is going to pay through the nose.

It's pretty apparent that the federal money is being spent to fix the roads and the bridges and the bonds from the marcellus shale trucking companies will pay to fix the back roads when they are damaged. So the only money Rendell is trying to generate is to brace up Penndot and the inner city bus companies like PAT. They ought to let the Port Authority die a peaceful death. Why should people collect a check, when they don't produce anything. There is nothing there to show a profit.

[Honest Bob]

My brother was telling me a story today about a guy that he worked with that relied on the bus for transportation to and from work.

He had used up all his vacation days and sick days by April and the company and the union warned him that if he was late or absent one more time he would loose his job. He assured them that the bus ran on time and it wouldn't be a problem.

Well 3 days later, the bus was late and he was fired.

To me - that would be all that it would take for me to decide that in order to get to work on time, you need to own your own vehicle.

[gameguy56]

Originally Posted by Honest Bob

My brother was telling me a story today about a guy that he worked with that relied on the bus for transportation to and from work.

He had used up all his vacation days and sick days by April and the company and the union warned him that if he was late or absent one more time he would loose his job. He assured them that the bus ran on time and it wouldn't be a problem.

Well 3 days later, the bus was late and he was fired.

To me - that would be all that it would take for me to decide that in order to get to work on time, you need to own your own vehicle.

Or alternatively, that the bus system needs to be fixed.

[trotter_rej]

Originally Posted by Honest Bob

My brother was telling me a story today about a guy that he worked with that relied on the bus for transportation to and from work.

He had used up all his vacation days and sick days by April and the company and the union warned him that if he was late or absent one more time he would loose his job. He assured them that the bus ran on time and it wouldn't be a problem.

I won't debate the merits of funding public transportation as I'm sure Brian will do a much better job of it than I. However, a person who not only has managed to use up all of their vacation and sick time, but also to get fired from a union position likely has bigger issues than just getting to work on time.

[captainmidnight]

From the Post-Gazette article:

"Of the $1 billion to be raised under his plan, $700 million would go to repair roads and bridges and $300 million for mass transit improvements -- $250 million for capital spending and $50 million for operational."

How would this help the Port Authority and their January service cuts? Their $47 million deficit is on the operations side. I believe the SEPTA deficit is $100 million plus.

[pman]

Originally Posted by bmantz65

From the Post-Gazette article:

"Of the $1 billion to be raised under his plan, $700 million would go to repair roads and bridges and $300 million for mass transit improvements -- $250 million for capital spending and $50 million for operational."

How would this help the Port Authority and their January service cuts? Their $47 million deficit is on the operations side. I believe the SEPTA deficit is $100 million plus.

actually, for the time being, I think most (if not all)of SEPTA's gap is on the capital side. SEPTA never bought into Act 44 and never increased service, and they recently raised fares again. during the recent gas price runup ridership jumped over 20% on regional rail and only dropped back about 8-10% after is subsided. Of course, a couple of years without capital and the cost of operating a railroad will skyrocket.

[Johnny C]

Maybe we should build a Casino on the River in Downtown Pittsburgh and have it pay for everything that the state needs...

[BrianTH]

The oil companies currently don't pay PA's corporate income tax because they make use of the Delaware loophole. Rendell wants them to be forced to take this tax out of their profits and not pass it on to consumers. They certainly have the profit margins to do that--whether that idea could be lawfully enforced is another matter.

As to Honest Bob's ongoing rants against state subsidies for public transportation despite enjoying the benefits of free state roads: again, if Honest Bob wants to support the state getting out of the business of funding transportation entirely, and along with that eliminating all the relevant special tax rules (both special taxes and special exemptions), then that would be fine with me. Places like Allegheny County could self-fund PAT, and rural counties could self-fund their roads. And Allegheny County would come out WAY ahead in that deal, and many roads in many rural counties would turn into dirt tracks.

[grimacista]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The oil companies currently don't pay PA's corporate income tax because they make use of the Delaware loophole. Rendell wants them to be forced to take this tax out of their profits and not pass it on to consumers. They certainly have the profit margins to do that--whether that idea could be lawfully enforced is another matter.

And what are the odds of the oil companies - or any company not passing higher taxes/fees to the consumer?

The behavior of everyone from the PAT board to Rendell to the Legislature would be laughable if it weren't so depressing with relation to transportation funding. Most people with more than 3 brain cells realized that it was no foregone conclusion that the feds would permit tolls on I 80 - yet the Legislature and the Port Authority did their typical 'once over', saw that it looked good and then called it a day without any type of contingency plans.

I understand there are thousands of miles in the boonies that need to be repaired etc - but again, where does all the money that the state collects from taxes, fees, tolls go? Seriously, 3/4 of that money must disappear because it doesn't seem like anyone gets the benefit. Roads suck. Social services suck. Mass transit sucks.