Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2006 > July > 03 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHolidays, taxes and traffic congestion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A holiday weekend — especially one that marks the 50th anniversary of the July 1, 1956 launch of the now-completed Interstate Highway System — is a good time to ask the question: Why in the world is the federal government still collecting 18.3 cents per gallon in gasoline taxes?
It’s an example both of a tax that remains after a project is completed and of the metamorphosing role of government programs. In the Surface Transporation Act of 1982, Congress raised the interstate-construction tax, which had grown from 3 cents in 1956 and 4 cents in 1959, to a 9 cents per gallon. It allocated a penny of it to mass transit. Now of the 18.3 cents collected, 2.86 goes to mass transit.
In addition to the federal tax, the state collects a base of 7.5 cents per gallon, plus the four percent statewide sales tax, making the state tax about 19.5 cents per gallon at the current price of about $3 per gallon.
My view is that the feds should get out of the gasoline taxing business, and out of the business of choosing which highway and transporation projects should be funded, and give that tax over to the states to use as state officials deem appropriate. We’re about to launch a white elephant — a commuter rail project extending 26 miles from Atlanta to Lovejoy — and primarily because federal money is available. What nonsense.
Give the money to a government closer to the people and allow them to decide how they want to spend it — and if they’re smart, they’ll spend it to buy highway congestion relief. If you travel this weekend, or most any day, south of Atlanta on I-75 in the vicinity of Eagles Landing Parkway, you realize the folly of spending on boondoggle rail projects when motorists are stuck in gridlock.
Give the taxing capacity back to the states and let the states address transportation needs on a cost-benefit basis. Spend the money where it buys the most congestion relief. Who could possibly disagree?
Comments
By Patriotic Foreskin
July 3, 2006 08:31 AM | Link to this
Jim Wooten must have tried to escape the city yesterday (for the farm) and got stuck in a traffic quagmire. How he must have prayed for sanctuary as he fumed during that exhausting ordeal, eh? But that is why we need to separate church and state: diverting money for Mass transit leaves car trafic in a slow Procession.
Fed tax money does nothing to ease the flow…And how about the way people drive! Last week a Pepsi Truck clipped a KFC truck on Spaghetti Junction and they both careened over the (sneeze)Gaurdrail. The buffet line stretched for miles in every direction. If someone had yelled “foodfight” then, we’d still be cleaning it all up.
At least use the fed money to clean up debris on the highways. Yesterday I was in the HOV lane, and I nearly smashed into a mattress. A mattress in the HOV land! Worse, there was only one guy sleeping on it! Dont people read even the state-money signs? 2 or more in the HOV lane, pal.
And let’s keep our old cars maintained. I saw a car on the road once that was so old, its crash test dummies had beards!
Aren’t we all just crash test dummies for the car companies? Look how long it took for them to put seat belts in cars. The windshield used to be the air bag. In fact, they made safety glass first, so that corpses wouldn’t get so lacerated as they passed through the windshield during accidents. It used to be a marketing ploy to point out that an open casket is possible only with Chevy occupants. Only after 75 years did they finally put seatbelts in cars.
By Joeventures
July 3, 2006 08:32 AM | Link to this
Yes. These decisions should be made by governments that are closer to the people. The cities and counties along the Lovejoy route have, for the most part, been willing to help pay for the rail project.
The State DOT, whose board couldn’t be much further from the people than it already is, has tried to give every excuse in the book to block it.
As far as traffic relief goes, the rail project would offer commuters an alternative from traffic altogether. You can’t get more congestion relief than 100%.
Widening the interstate only leads to commuters changing when and where they drive. The end result is the interstate goes back to overcapacity. The net benefit to widening interstates is negative for commuters. The only positive net benefit here is to the roadbuilders who get rich from GDOT putting all their transportation eggs in one basket.
By Jim Wooten
July 3, 2006 08:48 AM | Link to this
Patriotic Fore, most everyday I try to escape the city for the farm, or for any other reason that involves travel south on I-75, the Eagles Landing area is in gridlock, often on both sides. If I were a good liberal, I’d argue that gridlock is tearing families apart (because you can’t get home in time for supper) so therefore we should tax — hmmm, let me see what I don’t drive, ah, SUVs, yes tax them — to fund my highway expansion social program. But since I’m not, I’ll just argue for letting the states levy the tax uniformly and make the decisions based on what gets the most traffic relief for the buck.
By @@
July 3, 2006 08:50 AM | Link to this
Jim:
That white elephant of which you speak, will be taking a dump in my front yard. I told them my shovel wasn’t big enough to clean up that mess, but they didn’t care. The bulldozers around me abound in anticipation of hauling off their money generated by the Lovejoy Station, but they’re gonna leave me with the dung.
Whoa is me!
By Patriotic Foreskin
July 3, 2006 08:57 AM | Link to this
I think they should require photo IDs for the privelege of driving!
BTW: In Mexico, people need a Frito ID to vote.
And we should school people in the proper meaning of the different hand gestures used to protest other driver’s emergency maneuvers. Certain moves deserve certain gestures. People over use the one finger salute, is all I’m saying.
And what is this “leaning into turns” thing that drivers do? Even if the road veers just a little, they lean into the direction of the curve like it’s tryouts for the Jamaican Bobsled Team. Have you ever seen these drivers in a subdivision? “Put on a crash helmet, Martha, it’s a Cul de Sac!!”’
By Me
July 3, 2006 09:14 AM | Link to this
The federal government will not release the federal gas tax because they are making too much money from the currently high gas prices. In an administration where the national deficit is approaching the trillions (for all you so-called conservatives who support this administration’s spending), the gas tax is one place the fed can count on income because we all need to drive.
By Carl
July 3, 2006 09:17 AM | Link to this
Mass Transit to Lovejoy? Seems a bit wierd at first. But, hey, it is a start in the right direction. Metro Atlanta need a comprehensive NETWORK of mass transit, the key being network - a system where there are not 2 north/south lines and 1 east/west, but Many N/S and E/W lines intersecting in a grid pattern with multiple transfer stations - i.e. e/w lines @ 10th St, Lindburgh/Buckheadloop, Ponce; n/s lines on Highland, HowellMill, Monroe/Piedmont. Not everyone wants to go to Underground, and those that would use MARTA are forced to get on buses that are stuck in the same traffic as everyone else. We need to bite the bullet and build a system like New York where the train stops are measured in blocks NOT buses, Then people might actually use it and make extensions to towns like Lovejoy rational.
By Jim Wooten
July 3, 2006 09:18 AM | Link to this
My favorite, Patriotic Fore, is the driver who enters a freeway from the right side and, knowing that the exit 20 miles down the road is on the left, promptly cuts across three lanes of faster-moving traffic to get to the left lane.
By Patriotic Foreskin
July 3, 2006 09:41 AM | Link to this
Okay, lets test the readers on their hand gesture driving knowlege. What would be the appropriate hand gesture for the maneuver that Jim Wooten just described at 9:18:
A) One finger salute
B) the shaking fist
C) the two handed milking-the-teat motion
D) the counterclockwise circular index finger to the temple
E) the empty your Baretta clip trigger finger motion (without an actual gun)
F) the empty your Baretta clip trigger finger motion (with an actual gun)
By shaney
July 3, 2006 09:42 AM | Link to this
we in alabama enter freeway traffic know what yield signs mean! ga. drivers dont!
By jbmlaw
July 3, 2006 09:45 AM | Link to this
Of course the Lovejoy Rail is a foolish use of “goverment” (i.e, really “taxpayer”) money. All government spending is, by definition, uneconomic. The sole theoretical purpose of government spending is to provide expenditure where the free market “fails,” such as the cost of maintaining liberty through firepower.
Of course, the free market only provides those products and services for which demand equals or exceeds the time value of the alternative uses of monies.
Great apochyphal Economics story, of the time Friedman was showing Hayek around the Chicago campus, trailed by Sowell. As they walked, the great men happened upon a $100 bill laying on the sidewalk. Friedman and Hayek paused, studying the greenback, then walked on, talking.
Sowell protests, “Gentlemen, you saw the money there. Why didn’t you pick it up?”
Friedman responds, “Silly man. Don’t you know that, if there truly were a $100 bill there, someone would have already picked it up.”
By me
July 3, 2006 11:08 AM | Link to this
Good column Jim. For someone who’s never been off I-75 when going through that part of town, may I ask everyone why is Lovejoy a draw for a rail system? Is the racetrack or some other attraction lobbying for it? I.e. why was Lovejoy picked?
By Right Thinking Conservative
July 3, 2006 11:24 AM | Link to this
Government programs and taxes proof positive eternal life exists on mortal’s plant earth.
Unquestionably Washington D.C. remains the abode of deity. Mysterious things transpire there, amongst the divine powers that be.
One such phenomenon is this so-called give back scheme – The Houdini Act passed into law before most of us were born — which continues to perform great illusions to the delight of many politicians and bewilders the weary disbelieving eyes of the fleeced. Lock-boxes are picked. Dollars are transformed into dimes. Funds shuffled around in shell games, now we see them now we don’t.
Right Thinking to Thinking Right: Why send our money on a long arduous journey to the abode of deity and subject it to the Houdini Act knowing most of it will never return. Besides, tired money is never well spent, keep these 18.3 cents here in Georgia where it is collected. If it goes busted here, at least it can do so sitting down.
Of course the states with small populations shall whine. Simple solution: Divide the nation’s population by fifty. Let each state keep their portion of these 18.3 cents according to their respective population and send the remaining rest to Washington D.C. for redistribution under the federal Houdini Act. Call it The Deity Reduction and Truth in Redistribution Act. Wouldn’t you just love taking the mysterious out of things like highways and bridges to nowhere!
By Barbara
July 3, 2006 12:25 PM | Link to this
@ Patriotic Fore,
I don’t make hand gestures anymore. Idiotic drivers bother me less and less as I get older. However, when I smile at them and nod my head, I’m fantisizing about (F) :-)
By Cletus Snow
July 3, 2006 12:36 PM | Link to this
Let the Feds.keep the money, but they need to buy more of the “Slower traffic keep right”signs and enforce them.The right 2lanes are usually faster in the Atlanta area,I don’t see that in other areas as much as here.
By SAR
July 3, 2006 12:56 PM | Link to this
How hand gestures git into the topic of federal taxes is beyond me, though it was interesting, and the mattress was great :D .
Anyway, unless someone can explain to me exactly how the feds spend almost $.20 per gallon, I’m totally against their getting anything, though I also agree with Me that they will never willingly give up the cash cow that they enjoy. They just have to spread it around a little here and there to keep up the facade.
What should be happening is that the state should be getting a fixed (not this percentage based on futures baloney) tax to cover everything as, to the best of my knowledge, it’s the state DOT, not the federal DOT, that takes care of the roads. Now that the infrastructure is there, the tax is a white elephant, just like the 400 toll is a white elephant that should also become extinct, like it was supposed to be when it was started.
By Patriotic Foreskin
July 3, 2006 12:56 PM | Link to this
Barbara, (I love that name BTW), so you’re saying that’s not a cellphone you’re holding when you drive? So you’re saying you LIKE it when someone tailgates?
By Redneck - America Al Qaeda
July 3, 2006 01:03 PM | Link to this
God, you rednecks make decent people sick - roads cost money to build, and to maintain, you stupid bunch of hillbillies - greetings from the Amsterdam airport - on my way to Bucharest losers…
By Ugotta B. Kidding
July 3, 2006 02:12 PM | Link to this
Hell, he’s probably leaving Willacoochee going to Alapaha…
By Road Editorial Guy
July 3, 2006 02:24 PM | Link to this
Yes, we need to do more to get our exact share of the Federal Gas Tax back from our Federal Representatives, which I must say is doing a very poor job of that. Our state has also done a very poor job to improve or construct our State Highways (Freeways) in nearly 15 years, and now there’s talk in our government of a 49% (FOR PROFIT-PRIVATELY OWNED) 51% State of Georgia DOT funded TOLL Highway network? STOP! I don’t want to pay a Highway TOLL to go into the pocket of another multimillionaire! I think that a Rational Bi-Partisan Government Civilian Ran (non-profit) TOLL Road system would be a better alternative than to raise more taxes, and the Toll’s should strictly go to pay off the bonds that a State funds to build a highway, not 49% payback to multimillionaires who invest a political candidates ideology.
By Jim Wooten
July 3, 2006 02:43 PM | Link to this
Ugotta B. Kidding: Willacoochee to Alapaha. Marvelous retort.
By Ugotta B. Kidding
July 3, 2006 03:17 PM | Link to this
Glad you liked it Jim. Hope that “world traveler” enjoyed it too. That’s just the kind of guy I am!!!
By Ugotta B. Kidding
July 3, 2006 03:19 PM | Link to this
If you remember the no-name bar in Willacoochee was one of the late, great Lewis Grizzard’s favorite water holes.
By Barbara
July 3, 2006 03:36 PM | Link to this
Patriotic Fore, is that you behind me? I can’t hear my cell phone over all your horn-honking and finger gestures.
Seriously, I don’t like it, but it happens. And I’ll admit that I’ve made my share of bonehead maneuvers. Once, after working a straight 16 hours until 8am, I pulled right out into the road without looking. Next thing you know, I heard the most horrible screeching noise, and when I looked in my mirror, there was nothing but a cloud of smoke and the biggest black pick-up truck I’ve ever seen, fishtailing behind me. I don’t know how close he was when I pulled out, but he almost lost his life trying not to hit me. And when he finally regained control of his car, he never honked, gave me hand gestures, rode my bumper or did anything to retaliate. I try to remember his example of forgiveness any time some poor person makes one of those bonehead moves in front of me.
But just below the window line, where they can’t see……. I’ve emptied the magazine at them….
By Play that funky music white boy
July 3, 2006 04:39 PM | Link to this
Jim, why not raise the gas tax to $1 a gallon for feds and $0.25 for state? Do away with all other taxes. American’s have proven now with $3 a gallon, consumption hasn’t been stymied - what do you do with the crack (oil) addicts? Get them to pay for everything you can without hurting the economy. Sure, I know truckers and freight carriers have been hit, but most of those costs have been passed on and would continue to be. C’mon, who’s with me? End the IRS and GA Dept of Revenue, just up the gas tax - get the guy driving the Hummer and/or Tahoe to pay for the schools, parks, public safety, and everything else while he’s filling up that giant vehicle.
By Play that funky music white boy
July 3, 2006 04:53 PM | Link to this
And to take a shot in tandem with Ugotta for our world traveler - go fill up anywhere in the EU, see how much you get for your money there. And don’t give me the exchange rate excuse, when I was there in ‘01 the dollar was great against the Euro (Euro’s were about 0.80 on the dollar, going to a nice restaurant cost you what it would to go to ChickfilA here) and it still cost me about $35 to fill up a Renault (and I found out why first hand they don’t sell that car here anymore, it was awful.)
By Ugotta B. Kidding
July 3, 2006 04:57 PM | Link to this
I would like to know why our gasolines prices in South Georgia are so very close to those in Florida. There used to be a bigger difference in the prices. They have a much higher gas tax, therefore their’s should be much higher. I’ve seen it as close as 5 cents. WHY??? After all you know WE have a state income tax and Florida doesn’t. What gives? Is there some gouging going on? OF COURSE I KNOW THE OIL & GAS COMPANIES WOULD NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!! Duh-Huh…
By Ugotta B. Kidding
July 3, 2006 05:06 PM | Link to this
Funky, just heard from Redneck. He had a flat tire on the ‘63 Rambler in Enigma, got lost in Tifton, but made it into Ty Ty. Will be staying at the No Tell Motel.
By Jmarsh
July 3, 2006 06:05 PM | Link to this
The federal government keeps the tax, since they typically fund 60% of any project with federally collected tax dollars. If we let the states keep the money, does that mean they will stop begging the feds for 12 million dollars of funding for a 15 million dollar project? Yeah, didn’t think so.
By Jeff
July 3, 2006 06:07 PM | Link to this
UGotta:
Just curious: What part of South GA are ya in? I’m moving to SWGA, and the prices down there as of last weekend (a week ago yesterday) were about 15 cents cheaper at the gas station just up the road from my new apartment as it was from the gas station across the street from my current house….
By Ugotta B. Kidding
July 4, 2006 08:22 AM | Link to this
Winnersville, USA…Valdosta, GA aka God’s country, home of the mighty Valdosta Wildcats (winningest high school football team in the United States) and the reigning back-to-back AAAAA football champions Lowndes Vikings. Welcome to South Georgia neighbor!
By Jim Wooten
July 4, 2006 08:33 AM | Link to this
Ugotta, was that a white ‘63 Rambler? Redneck may have been spotted chugging through Chula on a search for the perfect possum pate.
By Ugotta B. Kidding
July 4, 2006 10:54 AM | Link to this
You mean fresh road kill? And yeah it is white with Teeterville Tech bumper stickers.
By OK
July 7, 2006 03:17 PM | Link to this
I had planned a comment about Teach for America, but then I read through the other comments and saw that all those ex-Venters had found another place to show their stupidity. I decided that I might be wrong about the cause of Georgia being in the low ten percentile in education. It’s not the fault of the educatonal system, but the example set by their families and their community. Obviously these people have too much time on their hands, and don’t care about education anyway.