Re: State sounds alarm over road funding

pigsty1953@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jul 30, 7:54 pm, Rich Piehl
<rpiehl5REMOVETHIS...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/s...

orhttp://tinyurl.com/2aac3y

From the July 30, 2007 St. Louis Post Dispatch. Link rot in about 10 days.

Missouri's top transportation official is canvassing the state talking about a "perfect storm" forming over his department.
Road construction costs are spiking, debt payments are ballooning, and at the same time, fuel taxes are generating slightly less cash and the federal highway trust fund is speeding toward a multibillion-dollar deficit.
The combination means that by 2010, the Missouri Department of Transportation could have just $569 million a year to pay contractors for road and bridge work. That's down from the $1.23 billion that MoDOT is spending this year on those jobs.
Click the link for the full article.

Take care,
Rich

God bless the USA
--
And if I claim to be a wise man
it surely means that I don't know.

--Kansas

So, Rich, I have stated many times how I feel, lets hear your
suggestion,

Randy


I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a sure fire solution. And you'll also notice I've stayed out of the other recent discussions of the topic.

But for the fun of it I'll run through the steps as I see them...and let everyone blast away.

First, obviously gas consumption is dropping and will continue to drop because the price of oil is continuing to increase. If something would happen and oil would jump to $125 bbl we could see $5-6/gal gas overnight.

Tax breaks associated with ethanol production and use only exacerbate the problem, and we can't produce enough ethanol to get us off foreign oil. It's a short term feel good solution that will do nothing to fix the problem long term.

Alternative fuel vehicles have a similar problem. They'll still need and use the roads, but they will provide minimal contributions to the road tax.

But the road tax is symptomatic of the larger problem - our gawd awful tax system. Created over a century it reminds me of a long-in- the-tooth computer program. Need it to do something over here, stick on a patch. Want an additional feature over there, put in another patch. Pretty soon the program is a giant jalopy that functions, but is so clunky and cumbersome that it runs like a Model T. Yeah, it still gets you where you're going, but it backfires as it goes, and has trouble making the hills and you gotta' get out once in a while and hit it with a hammer. But technically, it still works. But nobody wants to tackle the behemoth of replacing it because our current government leaders have no spine and are too tied in to special interest groups, and are more interested in getting elected than fixing problems. Nobody wants to tackle coming out with a completely new from the ground up version of the software.

The solution...scrap the entire tax system as it stands. Gas tax, income tax, property tax, real estate tax, the whole shebang. Local, state and Federal. Go to a flat tax. One rate for citizens and another higher one for corporations. Implement a similar, lesser flat tax at the state level, and at a county (parish) and municipal level. Use it to cover roads, schools, national defense, social programs, civil protection (police, fire, ambulance, etc).

The only exception would be there would be a fee based structure to administer certain things like hunting and fishing licenses, marriage and drivers licenses, business licenses, a few things like that. Cap their fee based on the population of the issuing authority, so there's $500 resident fishing license nonsense.

Couple other changes to aid the system. Term limits and line item veto (for Federal and State)..

You asked....how's that?

Take care,
Rich
(slipping into his asbestos underwear to ward off being flamed)

God bless the USA



--
And if I claim to be a wise man
it surely means that I don't know.

--Kansas
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: State sounds alarm over road funding
    ... The combination means that by 2010, the Missouri Department of Transportation could have just $569 million a year to pay contractors for road and bridge work. ... Tax breaks associated with ethanol production and use only exacerbate ... Implement a similar, lesser flat tax at ... administer certain things like hunting and fishing licenses, ...
    (misc.transport.road)
  • Re: State sounds alarm over road funding
    ... Tax breaks associated with ethanol production and use only exacerbate ... administer certain things like hunting and fishing licenses, ... That is the reason the gas tax was ... Term limits is not the solution you think it is. ...
    (misc.transport.road)
  • Re: State sounds alarm over road funding
    ... The combination means that by 2010, the Missouri Department of Transportation could have just $569 million a year to pay contractors for road and bridge work. ... Tax breaks associated with ethanol production and use only exacerbate ... Implement a similar, lesser flat tax at ... administer certain things like hunting and fishing licenses, ...
    (misc.transport.road)
  • Re: "The "Congestion Charge" is a TAX - Official
    ... fishing licenses. ... The TV tax is particularly bizarre, because the money goes to a quasi-autonomous body, but the fishing tax goes straight into part funding an arm of government. ... The TV licence seems good value - at least you're getting something for the money - but I can easily see that for large numbers of our fellow citizens, it might be hard to budget for. ...
    (uk.rec.driving)
  • Re: America Needs a Better Tax System
    ... Maybe we just need a better tax system, ... changes to the tax code, many adding special provisions and targeted tax ... individuals and from large and small business taxpayers as well as from the ...
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