I think Ray’s gasoline tax idea is excellent. There is only one drawback for Alabamians. In the 1950s, the state legislature added an amendment to the Alabama Constitution that states gasoline tax money can only be used for bridges and highways. Nothin to mass transit. Remember the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott? I believe the amendment is revenge for that civil action. We desperately need funding for mass transit in cities throughout Alabama. If this tax idea passes, it’s going to be a real struggle to get that amendment changed. But perserverance wins. Us transit advocates will perservere. Alabama has more than 700 amendments on the constitution, think we might be able to remove one? Thanks for the idea and for letting me have a say. I think I wrote this in the wrong place but I have no real techno savvy. Please place it where Ray can see it.
Sorry…but I HATE new taxes. NY had a tax similar to the suggested National Tax. It was to go only toward fixing the bridges and highway…Well 3 years later that was amended so the tax goes into the general fund. Then 5 years after they instituted a increase in the Drivers License Fee. The fee was to go toward fixing bridges and highways…Well what happened to the increased gas tax from 7 years earlier???
Once the government gets ahold of your money…it’ll NEVER be returned. They’ll ALWAYS find new ways to use the money.
Yea, it is not the taxes that are bad, it is the politicians and lobbyist who spend it who are the problem.
Forget a gasoline tax. We need a $50/barrel import duty on imported oil. Next year, there will be a TRILLION DOLLAR budget deficit. Use the money to reduce that!
It seems to me that highways and bridges are the right way to spend your tax dollars. Just how much mass transit do you need in Alabama? It seems to me that buses in Birmingham can be funded with state money easily. Do you really need buses in Huntsville? Widespread senior busing may make sense, but it just can’t b so expensive that you need federal money for it.
Tom and Ray have often pushed for Big Government. They are great mechanics, but not so good at government policy. We need less government and government regulation and less taxes, not more.
Mass transit has to be above all else safe. If any community has a crime problem, and I know nothing about Alabama as such, mass transit is doomed before it starts.
No, wait a minute, I do know something about Alabama. I have stopped on cross-country trips in Gadsden, and found it to be the friendliest place I have ever been, even more friendly than Sweetwater, Texas. which says a lot. Sorry.
When we discontinue handing out billions (trillions?) of our tax dollars to bail out private industry, handing out many billions to artificially support agriculturat sectors, spending many billions on useless porkbarrel projects (are you listening Sen. Byrd of WVa.?) and doling out tillions more to special interest groups, we’ll have plenty of surplus to fix the highways.
Right now we’ve bailed out the financial commuunity (one of the institutions we just gave $20 billion to just wrote $22 billion in end-of-the-year bonus checks), have the auto industry, the housing industry, the retailers, and (the lobbiests of) others standing in line with their hands out.
If we still have a deficit when the immoral wasting of gazilllions of our current tax dollars stops, then I might support an aditional tax. Until then I’m adamantly aganist one.
I know, why don’t we adopt the British idea of taxing our gasoline… I mean petrol.
A gas tax takes more disposable income from the people on a tight budget, those that have to drive to work, decide between bologna and pasta, and is inconsequential to higher income people. It hurts the already marginal income family or people, is not fair and is not right.period end
Amen.
Those that promote added gas taxes are likely either folks of sufficient economic means or folks that don’t commute. Those of us on a budget who commute by necessity have suffered enough already. To further strain our budgets to save the world from the SUVs at the shopping mall or from the effects of bad decisions, waste and economic pillaging in Washington is just plain immoral.
It’s easy to promote altruistic ideas when they hurt others. It’s a whole 'nother thing when you’re the one being hurt.
Sorry but whatever happened to people riding the bus paying for the bus? We used to have private companies providing bus service and they made money on 50 cent fares in the late 50’s. It the deepest pocket theory where there is lots of road money and they are finding a way to divert it to transit while the roads crumble.
As far as poor people being hurt by taxes, poor people are hurt by every expense. On the other hand, everyone needs to contribute to the common good and the costs associated with it. Giving someone who is poor a free ride is not the answer. Helping them to not be poor is the answer. Remember the Great Society where poverty was to be eliminated? Except people just found more ways to remain poor.
What happened is that cars got a lot cheaper but public transit did not. A friend was willing to ride the bus to work, but they wanted $2.75 each way, which was a lot more expensive than driving. The bus was almost door to door, but it was just too expensive.
Sorry but whatever happened to people riding the bus paying for the bus?
Love to…But it’s pretty much IMPOSSIBLE unless you live in a city. How about something that’ll actually WORK.
Giving someone who is poor a free ride is not the answer.
I got a GREAT idea…why not go back to tax structure when this country was first founded. Only land owners and business owners would pay taxes. Our fore fathers had a GREAT idea don’t you think.