Here it comes "Gas Tax proposal" Senators Propose 12-Cent Gas Tax Increase

The plan offered by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would raise the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4 cents-a-gallon diesel tax each by 12 cents over the next two years, and then index the taxes to keep pace with inflation. The increase would be applied in two increments of 6 cents each.

If there were some kind of guarantee that the money would only be used for it's stated purpose then OK...however when have they ever used anyone's taxes collected for the stated purpose.. also the whole bit about "index the taxes to keep pace with inflation" makes one wonder if the inflation figures will be the same as the ones they use to figure social security payments to the elderly ? I will bet a beer they won't be..

Face it folks those in the states are either gonna pay by a per gallon tax increase or by the mile.. either way it is going to drive up the cost of trucking which will drive up the cost of everything.

The plan also calls for offsetting the tax increases with other tax cuts. Senators said that could be done by permanently extending six of 50 federal tax breaks that expired this year, but they indicated they would be open to other suggestions for offsets.

The six expired tax breaks identified by the senators as possible offsets for fuel tax increases are a research and development tax credit, certain expensing by small businesses, the state and local sales tax deduction, increasing employer-provided transit benefits to the same level as parking benefits, a deduction for spending by teachers on classroom supplies, and an increased deduction for land conservation and easement donations.

Thank you so very much as I can see this will really help the average Joe who has to commute to work or drives a truck.. Thank you great wizard of the money supply !

I personally would like to see a breakdown of where the millions of dollars each and every day goes to.. How many IOUs are laying in the fund as monies were siphoned off for other well meaning projects.. Either way it does not matter for they have the power to write the tax laws.

There are several links... I just used this one as the first one I came accross.

abcnews.go.com...

...And the horse they rode in on...

a reply to: 727Sky

They can go make love to themselves.

Not only are we sick of paying for already high priced fuel but with the crisis in Iraq looming that price will only go up, so for them to suggest a raise in gas taxes is ridiculous, especially the diesel fuel tax raise. Because that's what I want, truckers to have to pay more in fuel costs which in turn will raise the price of all the goods that they truck in, which is everything.

I hate politicians. They need a pay cut and a day job.

My state of Pa. raised gas taxes this year already . Why do we need a Federal fund for the same purpose.
Get rid of the Federal highway fund all together and let the states take care of it themselves!

a reply to: 727Sky

When every politician in favor of this gas tax hike, sells all their cars, and only ride bicycles....maybe I'll think about it.

Not until then. Every single one of those high end car dependent asshats, must sell all their cars and never buy another one.

I guess you can see where I'm going with this one....can you imagine DC with only bicycle lanes instead of roads....


Des

Seems to me the taxes should go for road maintenance. Not really construction of projects that do not need to be done either. Much of the waste is in building roundabouts or doing stuff the people do not even want. I see roads that aren't even bad being completely revamped while others that need the work are full of pot holes. It is more about setting proper priorities that is important..

The truckers that haul food and supplies to areas should not pay all the road tax, I can see that. They pass on the cost to people. Now heavy equipment trucks, logging trucks, and some other heavy vehicles that use county roads are different, they break up the roads. They can pay some tax. Remember though, all the costs get passed on to the consumer anyway.

We already know this tax will probably not go to where it is supposed to go. It will probably subsidize the fuel for Jets. Now why should a person driving a car pay more so airlines get a subsidy. That is what happens though, because congressmen fly a lot usually. Airlines also donate to the campaigns.

I'm getting a little sick of how all this is working, it is one deception on top of another. Life in America is so screwed up, people who do not use services are paying for a few who do. Not even a fair situation.

a reply to: 727Sky

i can see it now... people are gonna say... do i buy food for the house or buy gas to make it to work the next week? geez politicians ...

Yeah this makes a lot of sense. Let's make sure that gas tax keeps up with inflation but when it comes to minimum wage keeping up with inflation they throw a fit. I don't care if Donald Duck runs in the next election I'm voting against the incumbent.

originally posted by: buster2010
Yeah this makes a lot of sense. Let's make sure that gas tax keeps up with inflation but when it comes to minimum wage keeping up with inflation they throw a fit. I don't care if Donald Duck runs in the next election I'm voting against the incumbent.

OMG....I think I love you Buster....never in a million years did I think I would write those words to you.

Des

Welcome to the real world Americans!
You guys pay a lot less than we do here in NZ, basically because of low Govt taxes, basically your fuel has been subsidized by your Govt up till now.
We pay $NZ2.20/litre for 91 Octane, 64.129 cents of that is taxes!
Get used to it, this is what the future is.
Its worse in the UK.
Looks like the Alberta Tar Sands and US Fracking hasn't made any difference, your supplies are mostly locally sourced now, but you are paying more for it....

Somebody has to pay. Not fixing our bridges and roads is not an option. That could lead to more job losses and loss of life.

The working person is already paying all the taxes, without a pay raise for years. They know we have to swallow it to keep our jobs and life.

originally posted by: Destinyone
a reply to: 727Sky

When every politician in favor of this gas tax hike, sells all their cars, and only ride bicycles....maybe I'll think about it.

Not until then. Every single one of those high end car dependent asshats, must sell all their cars and never buy another one.

I guess you can see where I'm going with this one....can you imagine DC with only bicycle lanes instead of roads....


Des

I drive a F250 4X4 I am thinking a bunch of politicians on bicycles would make for some serious fun driving through DC. Might just create some job vacancies along the way.

originally posted by: muzzy
Welcome to the real world Americans!
You guys pay a lot less than we do here in NZ, basically because of low Govt taxes, basically your fuel has been subsidized by your Govt up till now.
We pay $NZ2.20/litre for 91 Octane, 64.129 cents of that is taxes!
Get used to it, this is what the future is.
Its worse in the UK.
Looks like the Alberta Tar Sands and US Fracking hasn't made any difference, your supplies are mostly locally sourced now, but you are paying more for it....

That's what Obama wants...he said so. Wants us paying European gas prices. If people don't wake up soon, that's what we will be paying.

We have extensive oil reserves here, and if Politicians would open up areas for drilling our own oil resources...we wouldn't be staring down this barrel. If self serving Politicians would stop blocking the Keystone Pipeline...more jobs, cheaper gas for everyone.

Our Politicians are working for the oil corporations, not we the people....we have to change that and soon.

Des

I see this tax as one more attack on our freedom. This time it is an attack on our freedom of movement. We don't need higher taxes we need better financial management in Washington. I wish I could vote myself more money instead of making tough decisions. It would make life way easier.

Printing money from thin air to the tune of a debt around 17 trillion and spending like the world has 30 days left, but every single program fails what they said it would do, and poverty just keeps going up because of these backwards idiotic spending policies, but now another tax is going to help somehow...

Okay, yeah, sure. As soon as these people are all plucking out the feathers they should be tarred with, and we have new average and honorable citizens elected to these positions, then we can take a fresh look at it. Let them know also that they all need to resign immediately.
They won't do that? Why? Because they will lose millions they can make as corrupt politicians!
Honorable american elects would resign for sucking so bad, but not these jailbirds.

Currently, the Interstate System is 46,876 miles long. The final estimate of the cost of the Interstate System was issued in 1991. It estimated that the total cost would be $128.9 billion, with a Federal share of $114.3 billion.

www.fhwa.dot.gov...

Federal and State Gasoline Taxes Total collected, 1977-2004

$1,324 Billion.

taxfoundation.org...


In just 27 years of collecting gasoline tax, using just the gasoline tax (no tolls etc) we could have constructed a brand new, from scratch, interstate system more than ten times over.

But that's still not enough money to just maintain the roads? Makes sense.

I got it, rather than do this tax we can adjust the budgets given to our esteemed leaders in Congress that are used for housing, offices, staff, supplies, transportation, and so on and just consolidate that by providing them free lodging in the Federal Penitentiary of their choice for the rest of the more than 2/3 of a year that they are not in session but still get paid.

At least when they get caught doing something illegal (and actually serve time) they will already have some friends on the inside to make that transition easier.

How about we actually spend the taxes currently collected on the proper things. For example a recent informal study of Federal only taxes collected on per gallon sales could fully fund the replacement of the bridge (that needs replaced due to age and daily traffic usage) that crosses the Ohio River on I-75 in about 93-97 days. The Federal government has said that they will not fund it other than to partially contribute in which Oho and Kentucky must come up with the rest of the funding and fully refund the Federal contribution in x number of years.

So the taxes collected will fund a short term loan for a replacement project that close to 10% of the nation's GDP crosses every year. Ohio has agreed to allow tolls across the new bridge (but won't say if those tolls will stay in the Cincinnati area or can be used state-wide or if they will be lifted once the project is paid off). Kentucky will not agree to allow tolls on the new bridge at this time. So the project is stalled until there is agreement on the funding aspect which of course raises the cost for doing it later rather than sooner. Currently the bridge is almost 20 years past the expected lifetime.

And yes, ungodly amounts of mail crosses that bridge every day and yes the Constitution still stays that Congress is supposed to fund the upkeep of postal roads. But we should discuss a 12 cent hike in taxes and pin it to inflation so gas prices continue to go up and up and up.

a reply to: Destinyone

Unfortunately Obama and others do not realize that Europe pays such a high price because they do not have domestic production and refining like the US and that their taxes are higher to pay for all the socialist freebies that Europe enjoys such as Universal Healthcare and paid to not work on the dole system because they cannot find a job. If they changed either of those two things, they would pay around what the US does or less.

originally posted by: Ahabstar
I got it, rather than do this tax we can adjust the budgets given to our esteemed leaders in Congress that are used for housing, offices, staff, supplies, transportation, and so on and just consolidate that by providing them free lodging in the Federal Penitentiary of their choice for the rest of the more than 2/3 of a year that they are not in session but still get paid.

At least when they get caught doing something illegal (and actually serve time) they will already have some friends on the inside to make that transition easier.

How about we actually spend the taxes currently collected on the proper things. For example a recent informal study of Federal only taxes collected on per gallon sales could fully fund the replacement of the bridge (that needs replaced due to age and daily traffic usage) that crosses the Ohio River on I-75 in about 93-97 days. The Federal government has said that they will not fund it other than to partially contribute in which Oho and Kentucky must come up with the rest of the funding and fully refund the Federal contribution in x number of years.

So the taxes collected will fund a short term loan for a replacement project that close to 10% of the nation's GDP crosses every year. Ohio has agreed to allow tolls across the new bridge (but won't say if those tolls will stay in the Cincinnati area or can be used state-wide or if they will be lifted once the project is paid off). Kentucky will not agree to allow tolls on the new bridge at this time. So the project is stalled until there is agreement on the funding aspect which of course raises the cost for doing it later rather than sooner. Currently the bridge is almost 20 years past the expected lifetime.

And yes, ungodly amounts of mail crosses that bridge every day and yes the Constitution still stays that Congress is supposed to fund the upkeep of postal roads. But we should discuss a 12 cent hike in taxes and pin it to inflation so gas prices continue to go up and up and up.

If the politicians crossed this bridge going into DC things would be a lot different. Since when do they use gasoline tax for road repairs?? That won't happen until they use social security for retirees.

originally posted by: Ahabstar
But we should discuss a 12 cent hike in taxes and pin it to inflation so gas prices continue to go up and up and up.

June 19, 2014 BOSTON — Activists working to repeal recent changes to state's gas tax law said at an event on Thursday outside the Statehouse that they had collected enough signatures to put the question on the ballot.

The group behind the effort, Tank The Gas Tax, said that they have collected 26,000 raw signatures to complete the second round of petitioning as required by state law, well ahead of the minimum 11,400.

The ballot question, if passed, would repeal a 2013 state law that ties any future increases to the state gas tax to the rate of inflation as tracked by the Consumer Price Index. Opponents of the law contend that it is undemocratic because any increase in the gas tax would happen without a vote in the state Legislature.

The new law raised the gas tax in July to 3 cents to 24 cents per gallon before tying all future increases to the rate of inflation.

Taxation without representation isn't all that popular these days.