Gas Tax? Tolls? How About Both?
January 27th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission recently delivered another of those tone-deaf, asinine, typical-of-a-commission recommendations that have no respect for what is politically tenable in the real world.
Created by the GOP Congress in 2005, the NSTPRC concluded that the federal government should raise the gas tax by 40 cents over five years (and then tie it to inflation), and it suggested states like Texas should ramp up their own state gas taxes even higher, in order to invest in transportation infrastructure.
Mary E. Peters, Bush’s Secretary of Transportation and a member of the commission, wrote about the recommendation in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal a week ago. The headline read, ‘Gas Taxes Are High Enough.’
I must admit to a weakness for anti-gas-tax invective (from any source). I believe the tax on fuel, while it masks a host of policy disasters and environmental nightmares, has an overwhelmingly disproportionate effect on working men and women. It’s a tax that takes its toll chiefly on the backs of the poor and middle class. It’s very much like a toll fee. For those that have plenty of dollars, it is of little concern. For those that do not, the tax can take away the last resource of an economic unit living paycheck to paycheck. People still have to drive to work, despite all the commuter rail initiatives in Texas. The used and abused model of urban and suburban sprawl in Texas has tied us to our vehicles and to the daily use of several gallons of gasoline — even if you or somebody you know bikes to work.
So, I was sympathetic, sort of, when Peters wrote how she and two other commissioners “declined to support the report’s central recommendations.” A huge gas tax increase would definitely raise some revenue, and it might even discourage some people from driving, but it would be political suicide for any politician or political party that tried it. Peters and the rest of the commission knew damn good and well that no such 40 cent increase in the tax would ever become policy.
What the commission’s recommendation did, instead, was provide an opening for conservatives like Gov. Rick Perry to look like moderates and express outrage at the idea of higher taxes — in particular, higher gas taxes — which affect everyone regardless of ability to pay. Of course, Rick’s solution is toll roads.
Should there be an increase in the gas tax? It’s important to remember that the tax on fuel serves several purposes. It gives both consumers and producers a voice in public policy — a say, that is, in just how much gasoline consumption is reasonable. The tax also serves as a tool which governments can use to discourage consumption (and driving) — and encourage better mileage standards — not to mention raise revenue.
The fact is, the oil industry is and has been subsidized by American budget policy as well as foreign policy — government has been dumping cash into this industry since Franklin Roosevelt and his foreign counterparts realized they had to have gasoline to keep their armies moving. It’s the most subsidized industry in America.
According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists the subsidies are diverse and generous:
Direct subsidies include government-funded energy research and development. Indirect subsidies include the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, military expenditures related to the Persian Gulf, and police and fire protection related to highway use. Although “user fees” in the form of gas taxes, registration fees, and tolls pay for a portion of the infrastructure services, large government outlays remain that must be covered by general revenues.
The environmental costs are obvious in many ways, but they are not calculated into the price of fuel.
The scientists say: Pollution costs are borne by society in the form of increased health care costs and loss of wages due to illness and premature death (i.e., morbidity and mortality costs), reduced agricultural output, loss of visibility, and damage to buildings.
To my surprise and chagrin, however, Peters’ piece leads you in complaining about the gas tax and by the time she lets you go, you’re likely paying a toll to drive on the same highways your gas taxes already paid for. And she’s proud that the administration is pushing tolls as the only other option.
…a clear alternative has emerged… some form of electronic tolling that will both reduce congestion and generate needed revenue for transportation projects. Thanks to new open-road technology, these pricing programs can be put in place without forcing a single driver to slow down to pay a toll or have their transponder “read”… With the kind of encouragement we’re recommending, many more states could soon be able to pay for new transportation projects…
Peters would have us believe that we must choose between $4 a gallon gas and a maze of toll roads that tax us every quarter mile, just to get the same level of infrastructure that the federal and state government have maintained for 50 years as a public trust.
And her argument does not even address the gross dependence of the oil, gas, and auto industries on government subsidies and the debasing of our air, water, and quality of life.
There’s got to be a better way.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:41 am
When Mary Peters stood with Rick Perry here in Texas last year praising his innovative approach to transportation funding (i.e., turning our freeways and private land over to for-profit corporations who have the power to arbitrarily raise tolls on our roads as they see fit), she had one hand tied behind her as she was giving the Guv a pat on the back with the other for promoting federal policy.
I don’t know which came first, the chicken or the egg (did Bush and Perry dream this financing scheme up after a few too many Lone Stars one starry night out in Midland?), but I do know this: handing the job of raising taxes over to greedy profiteers lets our politicians off the hook. They can then claim the, “I didn’t do it, don’t blame me,” clause at re-election time while we kvetch about paying through the nose to drive to work every day.
A toll is a tax, no matter what cloak it wears.
The scary notion that the gas tax has to be raised 40 cents per gallon is just part of the PR plan to promote an unpopular toll road agenda.