(02-17-2018, 06:37 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(02-16-2018, 07:12 PM)MalabarJag Wrote: True. But the grocery purchasers are ultimately responsible for the trucks wearing down the highways, since the trucks wouldn't be on the road if they weren't carrying stuff to the stores. So it's fair to charge grocery purchasers a nominal fee to keep up with road repairs. And we're talking about less than a 10% increase in the price of diesel, which is less than half the cost of transport (purchase and maintenance of the trucks are a greater expense). And transport is a small fraction of the cost of groceries. When all that is factored in what does it amount to? Less than a 1% increase in grocery price?

Once again, I believe that 100% of road repair and construction should be paid for with fuel taxes. I would have this opinion no matter which party was in power. I had this opinion when Clinton and a Dem congress raised fuel taxes.


The real question is what tax rate is needed to do that? I suspect that the current fuel tax is sufficient to cover it, but a large part of it is being squandered on other items in the budget. But that's just a guess based on the corrupt nature of government. Show me the federal budget for roads and bridges.* Show me the income from the federal tax on fuel.* If I know those two things then I can make an educated response to the idea.

*Looked it up. $43.8 billion in fuel taxes in 2015. The spending on roads is buried in "infrastructure" of which about 1/4 is devoted to highways, and not broken down between federal, state, and local. But federal infrastructure spending is about $100 billion per year. Assuming 1/4 of federal infrastructure spending is for roads, that's about $25 billion per year. If so then fuel taxes cover 175% of federal spending on highways. 

Using the ten year infrastructure increase of $1.5 trillion, 10 years of highway spending (1/4) is about $40 billion per year, so yes, the fuel tax would need to be raised by 62.5% to cover the spending. That's 2 cents per gallon on gas, 15.5 cents per gallon on diesel.

Interesting post.  But my question for you would be, would a 2 cent per gallon increase in the gas tax, by itself, raise the $1.5 trillion needed for the infrastructure plan?   Because if it doesn't, you're talking about shifting money from somewhere else and further increasing the deficit. 

So maybe you could clarify- does the 2 cent increase, by itself, raise the necessary $1.5 trillion to pay for the infrastructure plan?

The plan floated by Trump was a 25 cent increase.