Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
I did hear something about raising the tax on fuel, but I don't know why that is proposed. Fuel is taxed by the gallon, not as a fraction of the overall price, so the recent dip on fuel price wouldn't reduce government revenues. Quite the opposite, low prices will increase consumption and revenues.
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It's being proposed (or at least mentioned) because the tax hasn't been adjusted since 1993. since then more roads have been built, cars get better mileage than they did and the dollar doesn't go as far as it did. So per gallon of gas sold we've got wear and tear being more effectively applied to the roads, maintenance is being less effectively applied and that less effective maintenance is being spread over more roads. Now that gas is suddenly a lot cheaper than we've been used to, it's a golden opportunity to say "We're spending $2 less a gallon, how about raising the tax by a dime? Nobody will notice!" For it or against it, now's the time to talk about it.
I disagree on taxing mileage, even adjusted for GVW. Why? Because we'd have to create an entire inspection and collection apparatus to back it up. The fuel tax is currently collected at the point of sale, where they're already collecting taxes on snacks, beer, smokes and lottery tickets. As it happens, fuel is a pretty good measure of how much wear and tear you're putting on the road- heavier vehicles burn more fuel per mile and everything burns more fuel the farther it goes. Okay, taxing gas penalizes things like idling, mowing and using generators, but I'm just going to ignore that. Electric cars can dodge this, so maybe we should eventually tax tires instead? I don't know.
You're right that simply increasing the amount of money available isn't helpful if it's being spent stupidly- but however they choose to spend it, they need more money. Spending it intelligently is a different issue that should also be addressed- and you can get a lot more agreement there. It's easier to raise a tax than to create a new tax, so when the thing being taxed suddenly becomes dramatically cheaper, an increase can be snuck through or legitimate arguments against an increase can easily be ignored.