Texas House to Vote on Massive Gas Tax Increase

[verybadgnome]

Lots of extra benefits with a gas tax including less "discretionary trips" which means less congestion. Also less money spent on imported oil means a smaller trade deficit (US oil production peaked in 1970/1). It costs less money to collect than tolling and roads do not have to have the extra design features of toll facilities. Then of course we have the problem of crumbling roads & bridges on existing facilities which tolling does not address, but a gas tax can.

As far as negative effects on lower income folks was this considered when the cigarette tax was raised?

[piyf]

Taxation is never the answer. God I love our civil servants in Austin and in DC. Always finding ways to take our money and in a recession no less. I only drive 4 miles round trip to work but that's not the point. These are the same people that raise our taxes yet lose most of it every year somehow.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by danieloneil01

Taxation is never the answer. God I love our civil servants in Austin and in DC. Always finding ways to take our money and in a recession no less. I only drive 4 miles round trip to work but that's not the point. These are the same people that raise our taxes yet lose most of it every year somehow.

Roads need to be built. Tolls aren't the answer. They're selling these roads and forcing a smaller subset of the population to subsidize highway construction at a drastically higher rate than a gas tax increase.

For example, the Sam Rayburn Tollway (SH121) was originally sold to raise funds for widening I-35 from Denton to Lewisville, widening FM423 from SH121 to US380, and several other "near neighbor, near term" projects.

Before the ink was even dry, however, TxDOT shifted revenue they promised would be used in Denton County to build the new Highway 161 tollway in Southern Dallas County. So much for "near neighbor."

These tollway rip-off schemes are Robin Hood for roads. The affluent residents of Collin and Denton County are paying (via their tolls) to construct free roads in Denton & Dallas County.

[piyf]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

Roads need to be built. Tolls aren't the answer. They're selling these roads and forcing a smaller subset of the population to subsidize highway construction at a drastically higher rate than a gas tax increase.

For example, the Sam Rayburn Tollway (SH121) was originally sold to raise funds for widening I-35 from Denton to Lewisville, widening FM423 from SH121 to US380, and several other "near neighbor, near term" projects.

Before the ink was even dry, however, TxDOT shifted revenue they promised would be used in Denton County to build the new Highway 161 tollway in Southern Dallas County. So much for "near neighbor."

These tollway rip-off schemes are Robin Hood for roads. The affluent residents of Collin and Denton County are paying (via their tolls) to construct free roads in Denton & Dallas County.

Yes roads need to be paid for and yes toll roads are stupid. I used to use the Beltway 8 from Pearland to Channel View every day. It cost my employer about 6 bucks a day just for me to use . They need to use the money they get from us better. Instead they throw it away or in most cases just lose it. I just find it hard to believe that all the taxation we have now, that it's not enough.