Highways Need a Higher Gas Tax

[BlindBoo]

Highways Need a Higher Gas Tax

Higher gas tax?!?!? At the start of 2002, I recall paying 99 cents a gallon for gas. Now, 12 years later the price is over 3 bucks. How could anyone justify needing a higher gas tax when gas is $3.50/gallon, but not when it was 99 cents/gallon?

Sure but in the months before and the months after it was still between 1.80 and 1.50 per gallon.

Gasoline Price History

The tax needs to be adjusted for inflation.

 

[Papageorgio]

Libs have always dreamed of $5 gas, but since we are getting there, they now want it much higher.

In their minds, the higher it gets, the less we drive, the more we walk, bicycle, and take mass transit.

They hate suburbia, and rural areas. They want us all living in large urban areas in walking distance to all services. This has always been their master plan.

Your Rightwing programming has definitely integrated itself into what used to be your brain.

I'm a Liberal and I want the teabaggers holding the House hostage to eliminate Wall Street speculation on oil, which would bring the price of a gallon of gas down 40-80 cents.

I also want them to put a cap on exports of refined gas, which would bring the price down.

Why won't the House Republicans do anything to lower the price of gas, teabagger?

I'm wondering why Obama just doesn't make an executive order, he does for everything else.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

 

[BlindBoo]

Marxist dimwits are like chatty cathy dolls... Pull the string and the same moronic phrases tumble out....tax the rich, tax the evil corporations, get our fair share !!!!

People before profits ! Social justicefor all comrades !!

Raising the gas tax effects everyone who drives. It needs to be adjusted for inflation and the funds don't need to be diverted to mass transit projects. All of it should be spend on the roads and bridges.

 

[BlindBoo]

Libs have always dreamed of $5 gas, but since we are getting there, they now want it much higher.

In their minds, the higher it gets, the less we drive, the more we walk, bicycle, and take mass transit.

They hate suburbia, and rural areas. They want us all living in large urban areas in walking distance to all services. This has always been their master plan.

Your Rightwing programming has definitely integrated itself into what used to be your brain.

I'm a Liberal and I want the teabaggers holding the House hostage to eliminate Wall Street speculation on oil, which would bring the price of a gallon of gas down 40-80 cents.

I also want them to put a cap on exports of refined gas, which would bring the price down.

Why won't the House Republicans do anything to lower the price of gas, teabagger?

Gas was about $1.79 when Obama took office, why doesn't Obama work to lower prices, Occubagger ?

That's funny. The price of gas during the summer of the Great Bush Recession was near 4.00 a gallon.

Gasoline Price History

 

[Jughead]

Highways Need a Higher Gas Tax

Higher gas tax?!?!? At the start of 2002, I recall paying 99 cents a gallon for gas. Now, 12 years later the price is over 3 bucks. How could anyone justify needing a higher gas tax when gas is $3.50/gallon, but not when it was 99 cents/gallon?

Sure but in the months before and the months after it was still between 1.80 and 1.50 per gallon.

Gasoline Price History

The tax needs to be adjusted for inflation.

But due to the higher gas prices, the feds are collecting more from the oil companies in the form of taxes. So the feds have more to invest in highway funds/infrastructure than they did when gas was only 99 cents/gallon. There should be no need to raise the gas tax as a result. Also, inflation does not explain an increase from 99 cents/gallon to $3.50/gallon in just twelve years.

 

[LogikAndReazon]

A usage tax based on mileage ... Thats what we need

Discourage the use of unsustainable evil fossil fuel burning....

For the planet and humanity ! Lol

 

[chikenwing]

Gas taxes are earmarked for the highway fund. Your argument fails.

That's a good one, you put a smile on my face.

If the gas taxes were used where they were supposed to be used we wouldn't have this thread because there would be enough revenue.

Revenue from gas taxes has dropped due to more fuel efficient vehicles and less miles being driven by private vehicle owners, no tax hike has been implemented offset this downward trend.

Less wear on roads and bridges,less repairs less cost??

Piss poor management is more to blame than you talking points. New York has the highest taxes across the board and some of the worst roads.A state highway rout 38 runs through the town we live in,last fall they milled rumble strip into the center,which promptly broke the road surface up and had to be re milled out and replaced all withing a few months,not long befor that another state road had new line painted on,a good thing,except a month later they repaved over the new painted lines only to repaint once again on new pavement,which was just a thin coat,which has also failed rather quickly.This is what is the problem,not more mony.

 

[JFK_USA]

Gas taxes are earmarked for the highway fund. Your argument fails.

Obviously one who does not pay attention to anything other than far left propaganda..

I bet you believe that all the lottery money goes into education as well, right?

Far left Obama drone poster fail!!!

How the hell does this post get 6 thanks? Pathetic

 

[Pogo]

Because Presidents have no such power, that's why. And for the record gas prices were only at $1.90 on 1/20/09 because of an overcorrection plummet after hitting an all-time high of $4.30 (in today's dollars) the previous summer. It plummeted with the economic collapse. Neither the high nor the low were realistic or sustainable. And neither was the doing of either President.

Gas prices follow the price of oil on the international market. It's out of our hands. That master valve at the White House does not exist. This bullshit about how either Bush or O'bama either set records or caused them to rise is just that -- bullshit.

But wait, I thought the high prices back in '07-'08 were due to Bush trying to help all of his rich oil buddies ?

Yep. It was on the news everyday. Libs were screaming and reporters were hanging out at gas stations peddling stories about these horrid economic conditions due to bush policy and blah blah blah. Fast forward to O and 3.50 to 4.00 a gallon prices and the media became silent and subservient.

Strawman-on-strawman action. Gotta love it.

 

[Pogo]

Libs have always dreamed of $5 gas, but since we are getting there, they now want it much higher.

In their minds, the higher it gets, the less we drive, the more we walk, bicycle, and take mass transit.

They hate suburbia, and rural areas. They want us all living in large urban areas in walking distance to all services. This has always been their master plan.

Your Rightwing programming has definitely integrated itself into what used to be your brain.

I'm a Liberal and I want the teabaggers holding the House hostage to eliminate Wall Street speculation on oil, which would bring the price of a gallon of gas down 40-80 cents.

I also want them to put a cap on exports of refined gas, which would bring the price down.

Why won't the House Republicans do anything to lower the price of gas, teabagger?

I'm wondering why Obama just doesn't make an executive order, he does for everything else.


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

You can't just "order" an international fungible commodity to do what you'd like to see. If you could do that you could "order" your weather or "order" a winning lottery number. You could walk into Mal-Wart and just name your own price for everything.

 

[Pogo]

Higher gas tax?!?!? At the start of 2002, I recall paying 99 cents a gallon for gas. Now, 12 years later the price is over 3 bucks. How could anyone justify needing a higher gas tax when gas is $3.50/gallon, but not when it was 99 cents/gallon?

Sure but in the months before and the months after it was still between 1.80 and 1.50 per gallon.

Gasoline Price History

The tax needs to be adjusted for inflation.

But due to the higher gas prices, the feds are collecting more from the oil companies in the form of taxes. So the feds have more to invest in highway funds/infrastructure than they did when gas was only 99 cents/gallon. There should be no need to raise the gas tax as a result. Also, inflation does not explain an increase from 99 cents/gallon to $3.50/gallon in just twelve years.

What the feds (and states and local municipalities) collect is a constant fixed level; has nothing to do with what the final price per gallon at the pump is (with the exception that some states (Georgia is one) vary their tax on a sliding scale). So what determines that income is strictly the number of gallons sold. And if that number either goes down or stays level due to higher fuel efficiency, less driving, people telecommuting instead of commuting, etc, such income is going to fall behind the rising costs of road maintenance. Not rocket surgery.

That's exactly why some legislators have proposed a tax on mileage, where every vehicle would be monitored and taxed per X number of miles individually. Even though that would require retrofitting hundreds of millions of cars with spy devices and then people to maintain those devices ---- instead of just doing the no-brainer thing and raising the tax to where it works.

And no, it's not inflation causing prices to rise, it's demand worldwide, especially emerging engorging markets like China and India. That's why the President has no say in it -- the oil business is a worldwide profit-seeking venture. It's not subject to US legislation. Unless somebody wants to nationalize the oil companies and fly solo.

 

[BlindBoo]

Higher gas tax?!?!? At the start of 2002, I recall paying 99 cents a gallon for gas. Now, 12 years later the price is over 3 bucks. How could anyone justify needing a higher gas tax when gas is $3.50/gallon, but not when it was 99 cents/gallon?

Sure but in the months before and the months after it was still between 1.80 and 1.50 per gallon.

Gasoline Price History

The tax needs to be adjusted for inflation.

But due to the higher gas prices, the feds are collecting more from the oil companies in the form of taxes. So the feds have more to invest in highway funds/infrastructure than they did when gas was only 99 cents/gallon. There should be no need to raise the gas tax as a result. Also, inflation does not explain an increase from 99 cents/gallon to $3.50/gallon in just twelve years.

Taxes are on profit not retail price.

The biggest three publicly owned U.S. oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips—also paid relatively low federal effective tax rates in 2011. Reuters reported that their tax payments were “a far cry from the 35 percent top corporate tax rate.” It estimated that ExxonMobil’s effective federal tax rate in 2011 was 13 percent, Chevron’s was 19 percent, and ConocoPhillips’s was 18 percent.

Big Oil Profits?and Tax Breaks?Remain High Despite Sequestration Cuts | Center for American Progress

 

[Jughead]

Sure but in the months before and the months after it was still between 1.80 and 1.50 per gallon.

Gasoline Price History

The tax needs to be adjusted for inflation.

But due to the higher gas prices, the feds are collecting more from the oil companies in the form of taxes. So the feds have more to invest in highway funds/infrastructure than they did when gas was only 99 cents/gallon. There should be no need to raise the gas tax as a result. Also, inflation does not explain an increase from 99 cents/gallon to $3.50/gallon in just twelve years.

Taxes are on profit not retail price.

The biggest three publicly owned U.S. oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips—also paid relatively low federal effective tax rates in 2011. Reuters reported that their tax payments were “a far cry from the 35 percent top corporate tax rate.” It estimated that ExxonMobil’s effective federal tax rate in 2011 was 13 percent, Chevron’s was 19 percent, and ConocoPhillips’s was 18 percent.

Big Oil Profits?and Tax Breaks?Remain High Despite Sequestration Cuts | Center for American Progress

Correct. Higher prices at the pumps equals more profit for the oil companies, meaning they are paying more in taxes.

 

[Jughead]

Sure but in the months before and the months after it was still between 1.80 and 1.50 per gallon.

Gasoline Price History

The tax needs to be adjusted for inflation.

But due to the higher gas prices, the feds are collecting more from the oil companies in the form of taxes. So the feds have more to invest in highway funds/infrastructure than they did when gas was only 99 cents/gallon. There should be no need to raise the gas tax as a result. Also, inflation does not explain an increase from 99 cents/gallon to $3.50/gallon in just twelve years.

What the feds (and states and local municipalities) collect is a constant fixed level; has nothing to do with what the final price per gallon at the pump is (with the exception that some states (Georgia is one) vary their tax on a sliding scale). So what determines that income is strictly the number of gallons sold. And if that number either goes down or stays level due to higher fuel efficiency, less driving, people telecommuting instead of commuting, etc, such income is going to fall behind the rising costs of road maintenance. Not rocket surgery.

That's exactly why some legislators have proposed a tax on mileage, where every vehicle would be monitored and taxed per X number of miles individually. Even though that would require retrofitting hundreds of millions of cars with spy devices and then people to maintain those devices ---- instead of just doing the no-brainer thing and raising the tax to where it works.

And no, it's not inflation causing prices to rise, it's demand worldwide, especially emerging engorging markets like China and India. That's why the President has no say in it -- the oil business is a worldwide profit-seeking venture. It's not subject to US legislation. Unless somebody wants to nationalize the oil companies and fly solo.

True. However, the more the gas companies raise their prices, the higher their profit margin. That means if they say pay 15% in tax, they will still be paying 15%, but they'll be paying more due to their higher profits. Their higher profits is assuming of course that folks are still driving at the same rate. With the extra taxes collected by the government due to the higher profits from the oil companies because they raised their prices drastically in the last decade, there should be no need to raise the fuel tax.

 

[Pogo]

But due to the higher gas prices, the feds are collecting more from the oil companies in the form of taxes. So the feds have more to invest in highway funds/infrastructure than they did when gas was only 99 cents/gallon. There should be no need to raise the gas tax as a result. Also, inflation does not explain an increase from 99 cents/gallon to $3.50/gallon in just twelve years.

Taxes are on profit not retail price.

The biggest three publicly owned U.S. oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips—also paid relatively low federal effective tax rates in 2011. Reuters reported that their tax payments were “a far cry from the 35 percent top corporate tax rate.” It estimated that ExxonMobil’s effective federal tax rate in 2011 was 13 percent, Chevron’s was 19 percent, and ConocoPhillips’s was 18 percent.

Big Oil Profits?and Tax Breaks?Remain High Despite Sequestration Cuts | Center for American Progress

Correct. Higher prices at the pumps equals more profit for the oil companies, meaning they are paying more in taxes.

Not necessarily. Depends on how many loopholes they can find that year.

You're conflating corporate income taxes with federal taxes directly off the product. It is the latter this thread is about. And that's a fixed rate, so the only thing that varies the end result is the simple absolute number of how many gallons are sold. If that number of gallons does not keep pace with the costs to which the tax is dedicated, then it's a simple matter of costs exceeding available revenue.

It's really not as complex as you're trying to make it here. How much profit an oil company makes does not enter into it.

Encapsulated in the original article:
>> The gas tax has been stuck at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, and during those 21 years it has lost 39 percent of its value to inflation. <<

Would you be willing to work at the same job for the same salary while it stayed fixed and lost 39% of its value? Same thing.

To look at it another way:
Years ago when you paid 99¢ a gallon, 18.4¢ of that purchase went to the Fed. On the other hand if today you pay $3.50 a gallon, 18.4¢ of that purchase goes to the Fed.

See the difference?
Me neither.

 

[KissMy]

Roads? We don't need no stinking roads! Get stuck in the mud, swim the rivers, get some exercise, take the train.

 

[BlindBoo]

But due to the higher gas prices, the feds are collecting more from the oil companies in the form of taxes. So the feds have more to invest in highway funds/infrastructure than they did when gas was only 99 cents/gallon. There should be no need to raise the gas tax as a result. Also, inflation does not explain an increase from 99 cents/gallon to $3.50/gallon in just twelve years.

Taxes are on profit not retail price.

The biggest three publicly owned U.S. oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips—also paid relatively low federal effective tax rates in 2011. Reuters reported that their tax payments were “a far cry from the 35 percent top corporate tax rate.” It estimated that ExxonMobil’s effective federal tax rate in 2011 was 13 percent, Chevron’s was 19 percent, and ConocoPhillips’s was 18 percent.

Big Oil Profits?and Tax Breaks?Remain High Despite Sequestration Cuts | Center for American Progress

Correct. Higher prices at the pumps equals more profit for the oil companies, meaning they are paying more in taxes.

Increase sales increase profit not higher gas prices. The higher prices are due to the higher cost of feed stock to the refineries, aka crude oil prices. Furthermore taxes generated by any business should go into the general fund not the highway fund. Now if you want to take money from the general fund and put it in the Highway fund, I'm okay with that but I like the idea of users paying for the services they receive.

 

[KissMy]

Now if you want to take money from the general fund and put it in the Highway fund, I'm okay with that but I like the idea of users paying for the services they receive.

Screw that! No more payroll to subsidize roads. All the money buys asphalt & fuel from oil companies to maintain roads for their customers. People who live in apartments close walk to work & shopping should not have to subsidize oil profits & roads. Users must pay the tax or start eliminating roads. Let's see the private sector try to maintain those abandoned roads for 1.6 cents per mile driven. The cheapest toll road is 5 cents a mile. most toll roads in the US are 10 cents a mile & go up to 35 cents per mile.

 

[BlindBoo]

Now if you want to take money from the general fund and put it in the Highway fund, I'm okay with that but I like the idea of users paying for the services they receive.

Screw that! No more payroll to subsidize roads. All the money buys asphalt & fuel from oil companies to maintain roads for their customers. People who live in apartments close walk to work & shopping should not have to subsidize oil profits & roads. Users must pay the tax or start eliminating roads. Let's see the private sector try to maintain those abandoned roads for 1.6 cents per mile driven. The cheapest toll road is 5 cents a mile. most toll roads in the US are 10 cents a mile & go up to 35 cents per mile.

Even people who walk everywhere still benefit from good roads. But I support raising the highway tax or gas tax replenish the fund. I oppose allowing corporations to short their pension funds.

 

[Erand7899]

Gas taxes are earmarked for the highway fund. Your argument fails.

Your response is based on ignorance. Our gas taxes are not only funding highways and bridges, but urban rail systems and subways. Very few automobiles or trucks use any of the urban rail systems or subways. Not to mention the thousands of miles of expensive bicycle trails.

BTW, our gas taxes go into the general fund, with an accounting entry in the highway trust fund.