Gas Tax
Streetsblog LA
Actually, Highway Builders, Roads Don’t Pay For Themselves
You’ve heard it a thousand times from the highway lobby: Roads pay for themselves through "user fees" -- a.k.a. gas taxes and tolls -- whereas transit is a drain on the taxpayer. They use this argument to push for new roads, instead of transit, as fiscally prudent investments.
January 4, 2011
California’s Pay as You Drive Insurance Program Could Reduce Driving
(Editor's note - If you don't read Streetsblog San Francisco, you'll be saddened to hear that our friend Matthew Roth, our sister site's Deputy Editor, is leaving to pursue other ambitions. This is his last post. Matt, you'll be missed. - DN)
December 20, 2010
Another Day, Another Revelation That a Gas Tax Hike Is Necessary
Add another vote in favor of increasing the gas tax to pay for infrastructure investment. A few weeks ago, a couple of senators proposed raising it 25 cents. Then the deficit commission came out in favor of a 15-cent hike. And now, three left-leaning think tanks – Demos, the Economic Policy Institute, and The Century Foundation – are calling for a bump in the fuel tax too.
November 29, 2010
Our Stagnant Gas Tax Rate Is Making the Deficit Worse
Despite the anti-tax rhetoric of this round of elections, there's been a little flurry of support for raising the gas tax lately. Two senators just proposed bumping it by 25 cents to replenish the highway trust fund. And the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform included a gas tax hike in its proposal for reducing the deficit by $3.8 trillion. Their proposal [PDF] is simple.
November 12, 2010
Yes, You Can Move the Needle on Public Support for a Gas Tax Hike
Last week, USA Today reported rather gleefully that the U.S. gas tax has never been lower.
Having remained unchanged at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, American
drivers are now paying half as much in inflation-adjusted gas taxes,
per 1,000 miles driven, that they did in 1975. We can pretty much
forget about investing in new and expanded transit systems — or even
just holding up our bridges — as long as this is the case.
July 7, 2010
Specter of Gas Tax Lingers as Rendell, Villaraigosa Push Infrastructure Bank
Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa (D), two of the nation's best-known advocates for greater
investment in the built environment, today joined several House
Democrats in calling for federal action on a National Infrastructure
Bank (NIB) -- even as questions about how the bank's scope, and
Congress' resistance to raising sustained new transport funding,
continued to dog the debate.
May 14, 2010
‘Gas Tax’ Sounding Like a Four-Letter Word to the White House and Senate
Transportation groups of all shapes and sizes have been concerned that the Senate's forthcoming climate bill could set back the prospects for a federal transportation measure by imposing extra carbon fees
on Big Oil -- which would then be passed on to customers at the pump,
effectively increasing the gas tax for purposes other than funding new
infrastructure projects.
April 16, 2010
The Gas Tax: A Trip Back in Legislative Time …
As Tax Day prompts a rush of political rallies and media coverage, it's worth looking back at the history of the federal levy that helps pay for transportation projects: the gas tax.
April 15, 2010