Comments on: Time to End Bipartisan Profligacy of Transportation Spending

By: YnotNOW

YnotNOW — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:26:54 +0000

I would suggest that the Federal Gas Tax should be reduced to the amount needed to maintain the Interstate Highways, while the States should be allowed to pick up the slack (of current total gas tax) to fund their increased maintenance requirements.

Before you scream about how the States will have to increase taxes, the advantage of this system is that States then have the opportunity to compete among themselves for efficiency and maintaining a competitive tax rate (or risk losing businesses and jobs to other states), which becomes an effective mechanism for keeping taxes from continuing to increase.

The initial conversion should be tax-neutral, but competitive pressures will keep the lid on liberal desires for high-speed-rail and other boondoggles.

By: Daniel Horowitz

Daniel Horowitz — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:19:51 +0000

and since the interstate system was completed in 1991, it is unfathomable that spending has increased exponentially. Funding should be limited to the Interstate Highways with everything else gradually remanded to the states.

By: YnotNOW

YnotNOW — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:19:31 +0000

So the Highway Trust Fund is just as mythical as the Social Security Trust Fund (which I wrote about here: http://www.redstate.com/ynotnow/2011/04/04/the-myth-of-the-social-security-trust-fund/ )

All Federal trust funds are just IOU’s from future general revenues, so there is no actual savings account to draw on – just future taxes. Moreover, if they changed the law to invest in actual assets, the size of the Federal government and the dollar amounts involved would distort the market and make this un-economic as well.

Your solution is correct – Federal gas tax revenues should be balanced with Federal Highway expenditures every year (need not be exact, but should be close to 1-for-1).

By: YnotNOW

YnotNOW — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:19:31 +0000

So the Highway Trust Fund is just as mythical as the Social Security Trust Fund (which I wrote about here: http://www.redstate.com/ynotnow/2011/04/04/the-myth-of-the-social-security-trust-fund/ )

Your solution is correct – Federal gas tax revenues should be balanced with Federal Highway expenditures every year (need not be exact, but should be close to 1-for-1).

By: YnotNOW

YnotNOW — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:15:22 +0000

are the modern-day “Post Roads” authorized in the Constitution, and as such are a legitimate expenditure of gas tax revenues. But you are right that anything else (espeically urban-renewal projects like light rail, bike paths, etc) that are not INTERSTATE are local or state issues only. And therefore the only constitutional way to fund them is at the local & state levels.

By: johnt

johnt — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:07:24 +0000

Maybe it’s a good thing, without it more of Trunka’s Trash would be out assaulting people.
I saw an overpass on a local highway ripped up and repaved five times. That I suppose comes under the heading of fixing America’s broken[ or run down] infrastructure, upon which we already spend billions on for upkeep.

By: Goldwater_Conservative

Goldwater_Conservative — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:38:17 +0000

award for Profligacy

By: averagevoterdotcom

averagevoterdotcom — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:19:31 +0000

to hell is paved with good intentions, eh?

By: BigRedConservative

BigRedConservative — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:19:13 +0000

is unconstitutional (with the exception of post roads) and ineffective. This is just another example of something which should have been delegated to the states a long time ago.