From: stephen@sprunk.org   
      
   On 03-Jun-14 15:03, Robert Heller wrote:   
   > At Tue, 3 Jun 2014 19:19:58 +0000 (UTC) "Adam H. Kerman"   
   >  wrote:   
   >> Eliminate the federal gas tax. Let states raise their own taxes.   
   >   
   > One thing that is noteworthy: as the price of gasoline went up two   
   > things happened: cars got more fuel effiencent and people started   
   > driving less.   
      
   The price increase and fuel efficiency increase roughly canceled each   
   other out, so each person still spent roughly the same amount on gas,   
   but that amount bought fewer gallons.   
      
   > This reduced the gross amount of the gasoline tax revenues.   
      
   ... because the tax is a fixed amount per gallon, which goes down with   
   inflation and efficiency, rather than a percentage of the price, which   
   would have kept tax revenues roughly level in real dollars.   
      
   That still wouldn't have been enough, though, because the costs of steel   
   and concrete have risen far faster than general inflation due to China's   
   rapid industrialization over the same time period.   
      
   > Normally, with ligher weight cars driving fewer miles   
   > should mean less wear and tear on the roads, but there are two   
   > problems with the fuel taxes: *trucks* cause more road damage, but   
   > pay less in fuel taxes (realitive to that damage)   
      
   IIRC, wear on roads is proportional to the weight cubed, which neither a   
   simple fuel tax nor even a toll by axle will properly account for.   
      
   The result is enormous cross-subsidies for truckers, and they have a   
   very powerful lobby that will spend billions to keep that in place, so   
   don't expect this to change any time soon.   
      
   > and some of the highway costs are 'fixed' irrespective to the   
   > amount of traffic (weather damage, snow plowing, etc.).  In many   
   > ways a 'fuel tax' is not really a viable way to pay for roads (and   
   > tolls don't always work either).   
      
   Tolls aren't perfect, but they're better than a fuel tax.   
      
   > The idea of imposing a 'use fee' for paying for highways   
   > just does not work well (and never really did).   
      
   It works well for limited-access highways, which are by far the most   
   expensive to construct and maintain.  Let local property taxes pay for   
   the local surface roads.  No gas tax is needed for either.   
      
   S   
      
   --   
   Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein   
   CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the   
   K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking   
      
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