Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Wants to Raise the Gas Tax, Too
Ed Wallace wants one. So does John Carona. And Wick. Add Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to that mix. Said LaHood at the North Texas Transportation Summit at the Texas Motor Speedway:
“The problem we have is, Congress wants to pass a very robust transportation bill in the neighborhood of $400 million or $500 million, and we know the highway trust fund is just deficient in its ability to fund those kinds of projects.”
10 Comments to “Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Wants to Raise the Gas Tax, Too”
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a consumption tax seems to be the only viable way to finance the transportation infrastructure in this country. however, very few politicians want to engage in this discussion because it means raising taxes. however, fiscal conservatives who favor consumption taxes and liberal environmentalists who want to improve the environment and reduce our reliance on hydrocarbons could provide a coaltion to make it happen.
I’m all for raising the gas tax. The problem is LaHood doesn’t want to spend any of the money on highways. You know, those silly things that move 98% of the people and goods in this country?
I have to say, i’m pretty tired of being told that we, the taxpayers, are the problem because we don’t fork over enough of our money to the politicians. The federal gas tax is already at 19 cents a gallon and state taxes are around twenty cents a gallon, so there’s more than enough money going into the greedy hands of politicians and their bureaucracy already.
Instead of prying open taxpayers wallets again, how about these politicians learn to budget wisely and not make promises they can’t keep in order to get elected.
How about showing a sliver of competence with the dollars you already confiscate. Frankly, I don’t care what Ed Wallace wants or thinks.
@hannibal
Where did you find the 98% figure you stated for NHS moving people and goods in this nation? I don’t seem to find that on any website regarding NHS facts and figures. I would assume the combination of rail and air move far more than 2% of our nation’s goods.
@Question. I believe he said people and goods. 98% was a pretty good off the cuff guess. It’s closer to 90% if you are using passenger miles as the metric. Air is 10%, with rail barely even showing up @ .56%.
http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/
@Tey
What is the total cost of our Highway System? If gas taxes are .20 a gallon, does this equal the yearly cost for buildout and maintenance?
It would be interesting to see a comparison of infrastructure costs/use, as rail I assume accounts for roughly .56% of the infrastructure as well. I say that considering most rail is single tracked in the nation with no greater than an 8 foot wide footprint, where highways w/shoulders are a minimum of two lanes, 30 feet, with some areas growing to 10 lanes and 100+ feet.
Do you know if there is a nationwide source that lists this?
According to the RITA, rail accounted for more than 25% of the nations’ freight:
http://www.bts.gov/publications/the_changing_face_of_transportation/html/figure_01_ton_miles_of_freight_by_mode.html
@Question
That’s a pretty interesting way of looking at this issue. I think that rail would be much, much less that .56%! That being said, right of way footage would have to be taken in account. I still think it would be almost inconsequential. As a cost vs. use argument, rail would probably trump all.