There are no assistance payments, often called welfare, for able bodied adults without children in the USA. The assistance for families with children is essentially for the children, not the adults. What are you referring to, @meanjoe75fan?
Do the states that have toll roads have a state fuel tax? OR Do the feds get part of the tollās?
The political shell games played with our taxes leaves US all confused and certain that we are paying too much while the undeserving pay too little and weāre often correct. But I understand that there is an effort by the current administration to remove all the waste fraud and abuse from federal programs. Soon we will be getting all that we deserve from our taxes.
Iām not sure if I want our roads built by amateurs.
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I gotta tell yaā¦where I live (SW PA), I think thereās PLENTY of infrastructure! Heck, this fall I oiled down my frame and went looking for a ādirt roadā: had to drive several miles to get to one, and Iām pretty rurally-located! I eventually found an access road to āAllegheny Lock and Dam No. 3,ā and spent several miles driving up and down it.
And theyāre currently in the process of ripping out the old, combined sewers, and putting in separate sanitary and storm sewers, for a cost of nearly $1,000 per taxpayer! Now, the Allegheny is currently supporting healthy bass populations, and is clean enough to swim in, any time other than immediately after a big rain. As a river user, Iām better off for this upgradeā¦those 10 days a year I have to avoid the riverā¦but am I a GRAND better off? Heck no!
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I know there are different standards for road construction, but in our recent interstate build, some sections are concrete, some are asphalt, I imagine there are different standards for road base, rebar etc. but I a not sure of the risk reward for higher standards, but I feel the build it right often gives way to make it look good for now.
@meanjoe75fan I know the issue, sanitary sewage need to be treated differently than rainwater, and it costs more money to treat sanitary sewage than rainwater. The goal is to divert rainwater to detention ponds to settle out particulate matter, before being released vs the cost of treating rain water as sewage which incurrs a greater cost, and possibly surpasses capacity of the treatment plant
Folks in Omaha arenāt so lucky:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/us/omahas-answer-to-costly-potholes-go-back-to-gravel-roads.amp.html
That is almost as bad as paying to remove the streetlights in Detroit to save money on electric costs. I have a few washbord roads of gravel I have to drive on occasionally, and would not want to have more. YIKES
How about we take all the taxes that have been diverted to other things and put them back into fixing roads.
Highway taxes in any form are ALWAYS for the general fund. They just use the disguise of road repair as a way to get people to vote for it.
Yes, although the fuel tax varies considerably from state to state.
No
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What about EBT cards (food stamps)?
EBT cards are used to distribute money for food stamps and temporary assistance for needy families (TANF). TANF is like traditional welfare and is available for a total of 5 years during a personās lifetime. That hardly seems likely to keep people from working. Food stamps, or supplemental nutritional assistance program (SNAP) is available to working poor, and that to me indicates that it is meant to provide food for those that canāt afford it. They are still working, though.
@VDCdriver What do they do with all the toll money they collect? I do know that I spent a lot of it during over 40 years of driving on them.
Every state is different so there is no real answer, just guesses . Besides it might be best to not know.
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[quo[quote=āthe_same_mountainbik, post:6, topic:101064, full:trueā]
Without these things we wouldnāt have the interstate highway system.Unfortunately, the funds started being misused by politicians to control statesā actions.
[/quote]
Then youād support ending the federal fuel tax.
Me neither. Iād vote for enough taxes to pave enough roads to pay professionals (citizens even) to do it. This thread has turned up a lot of anti-tax sentiment. The people who donāt want to pay taxes could build roads themselves.
The point of the Militia Acts of 1792 was to defend the nation by amateurs so we didnāt have a standing army, the real purpose of the 2nd amendment. If we could count on amateurs to defend ourselves, why not to build our roads? I think roads were built by impressing subjects in feudal Europe - probably elsewhere.
No. A lot of people disparage the Feds and tout the superiority of local government. I donāt, but we have popular government.
Iāve read about this happening in Vermont too.
Then youād support enough federal fuel tax to pay for it, and all the other interstate highway projects around the nation?
Which is why I donāt want it to have an army and a nuclear arsenal.
If citizens voted out the legislators who did this theyād stop doing it. One can dedicate a bond to pay to build or maintain roads and require a tax to fund repayment, at least everywhere Iāve lived.
Remember the scene in āThe Pawnbrokerā when Rod Steiger confronts Brock Peters?
So letās get this straight
You do NOT want the US government to have an army . . . ?!
What do you propose instead?
āGet rid of the federal fuel tax and the highway trust fundā
Am I missing something? I donāt get out much, but werenāt most of the road/bridge repairs already taken care of by adding $800 Billion Plus to our debt?
The Obama Stimulus package for all the shovel ready jobs was for infrastructure upgrade. Problem solved.
It sure seems that after that we could cut back on taxes. I mean, after all, that big national debt is just going to be kicked down the road anyhow, right?
CSA
Accurate description of federal regulations. The states vary. Iām returning to automotive related subjects.
Yeah, that was the story told to us but the reality was very different. In my area, a section of highway near my home got a new asphalt cap it did not need to spend what little bit of the TARP money that was actually spent on infrastructure projects.
Thatās trueā¦and Iāve seen it happen in NY a few timesā¦and the following year they vote that the money to be diverted to the general fund and scrap some of the projects that werenāt built that year. Sorryā¦but in MOST states all taxes for highway still go into the general fund. Thatās why I NEVER vote for those increase highway taxesā¦it never goes towards the highway.
NY was especially bad. One year they raised toll taxes. The next year they increased the cost of a drivers license fee and vehicle registration feeā¦all increase to be diverted to highway funds. Two years later they proposed a several hundred million dollar bond for highway funds. No one could answer how much was spent on highway reconstruction projects from the several hundred million they raised on toll taxes and increase in fees.