On December 6th we paid $1.37/gallon for gas at...

[Grizzmeister]

News Channel 14 showed statistics on gas prices within the whole state of NC and the price in Wake Forest is in line with the state average. They also said that the price of gas is expected to keep going down. I hope that doesn’t cause people to go out and buy huge gas sucking sport utility vehicles again or we’re just going to continue our dependence on foreign oil and drive prices back up again eventually.

[orulz]

I'm gonna get skewered for this but..

Now is the time to raise the gas tax. We need it to pay for roads and infrastructure. NCDOT is responsible for more roads than any other state in the country other than Texas. The simple truth is that we don't have enough money to pay for the transportation infrastructure we need, and that's because the gas tax hasn't been increased to keep up with inflation since the early 90s or something. It should be adjusted to make up for the missed years of inflation since the 90s, and then indexed to inflation. At this point who couldn't afford another 15 cents per gallon. As previous posters pointed out, there's over 30 cents variation from one station to the next.

Even the most conservative of folks will say that infrastructure is the government's job to provide. More conservative folks will say "Trim out the fat before you increase taxes" but I don't think there's enough fat to trim.

But, unfortunately, it's never going to happen. The gas tax is a third rail of politics. So we'll be left with woefully inadequate transportation facilities forever. And I do expect gas to rebound again pretty soon.

[Streamer1212]

About 6 weeks ago, a Murphy Mart was opened in Zebulon, right beside Wal-Mart, and they opened with lower prices than anyone else in this area. Then, about 4 weeks later, Sheetz opened, and THEY opened with low prices as well.

Now there's a small gas war going in here, and yesterday I paid $1.35 for regular. I've seen prices at the Murphy Mart change 3 times in one day.

I hope they keep slugging it out. That makes my Cary/Zebulon commute a little easier to bear financially. And it keeps my Honda CRV very happy!

Streamer1212

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by orulz

I'm gonna get skewered for this but..

Now is the time to raise the gas tax. We need it to pay for roads and infrastructure. NCDOT is responsible for more roads than any other state in the country other than Texas. The simple truth is that we don't have enough money to pay for the transportation infrastructure we need, and that's because the gas tax hasn't been increased to keep up with inflation since the early 90s or something. It should be adjusted to make up for the missed years of inflation since the 90s, and then indexed to inflation. At this point who couldn't afford another 15 cents per gallon. As previous posters pointed out, there's over 30 cents variation from one station to the next.

Even the most conservative of folks will say that infrastructure is the government's job to provide. More conservative folks will say "Trim out the fat before you increase taxes" but I don't think there's enough fat to trim.

But, unfortunately, it's never going to happen. The gas tax is a third rail of politics. So we'll be left with woefully inadequate transportation facilities forever. And I do expect gas to rebound again pretty soon.

I don't see here any reference to gas tax funds, highway trust fund, diverted to general fund expenditures.
Using our gas tax revenue to build and rebuild infrastructure might be a good start.

[orulz]

Originally Posted by MikeJaquish

I don't see here any reference to gas tax funds, highway trust fund, diverted to general fund expenditures.
Using our gas tax revenue to build and rebuild infrastructure might be a good start.

I assume you're talking about the general fund transfer. Firstly, it's already being phased out. Secondly, it's something that, in my opinion, pundits and the media have blown way out of proportion. Here's a bit of history, courtesy of the News & Observer: (http://www.newsobserver.com/news/growth/traffic/story/1174007.html - broken link)

Before 1989, North Carolina collected a sales tax on cars that generated money for the General Fund -- not for roads. In 1989, Republican Gov. Jim Martin and the Democrat-controlled legislature replaced the car sales tax with a highway use tax on cars. This money went to a new Highway Trust Fund, to help build bridges and highways.
To make up for the money lost to the General Fund, legislators would have to raise taxes or cut spending. Instead, they agreed that $170 million would move each year from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund.

So, ever since the establishment of the Highway Trust Fund in 1989, $170 million a year have been transferred to the general fund. This transfer wasn't controversial until 2001, when Easley increased the transfer to $250 milion. This lasted 4 years until 2005, and then the transfer was dropped back to $170 million. Presumably it was increased to keep up with inflation, but opponents saw it as a money grab. I can see both sides of that argument, but the point is, it's now over and the transfer went back down to $170 million as of 2006. The additional $80 million per year added up to a total of $400 million over 5 years. That's not chump change, but it's over, and it wasn't really all that much either, in the face of huge projects like I-540, Bonner Bridge, I-26 Connector, etc.

Fast forward to today. With the general fund transfers coming under the microscope due to public attention, lawmakers have decided to phase out even the $170 million. (That's the $170 million that was uncontroversial between 1989 and 2000.) In 2009, the transfer will decrease to $145 million, and in 2010 it will be down to $70 million. FYI - DOT's total 2008 budget was $2.95 billion (that's funds collected in state; federal funds tack on an additional $950 million.) $170 million * 25 years = $4.2 billion "saved" by eliminating the transfer.

As you can see, Ending the general fund transfer, which is already going to happen, is not going to come close to plugging the $65 billion shortfall that DOT forsees over the next 25 years. Historically it has been about $170 million out of a total budget of almost $3 billion ($4 billion when you include federal funds).

The fact of the matter is, additional revenue that is indexed to inflation is sorely needed to keep up with the construction and maintenance needs of our transportation system. Now is the time to do it - when gas is dirt cheap.