by "ImmoralMinority" (araimondo)
Published 03/31/2017 at 12:16
by "ImmoralMinority" (araimondo)
Published 03/31/2017 at 12:16
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STARS: 2
Our idiot Governor wants to impose the largest gas tax increase in history on California, and jack up our license fees.
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I am against this because I think such a tax is regressive and unfairly impacts poor Californians, particularly in rural areas where they must travel long distances to work. Such people are already paying the second highest prices in the nation (only Hawaii is higher).
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Like it or not, other than San Francisco, our state is entirely dependent on cars, and when you jack up licensing fees for cars and jack up gas prices you punish low income people the worst. In places like LA, the lack of affordable housing has pushed people farther away, and traffic eats their gas. People who are well off can absorb an increase in license fees and gas costs; low income people cannot.
California is feeding a massive government bureaucracy, and increases like this do little to benefit the people. We pay high income, sales, and gas taxes, and we drive on crumbling roads and have collapsing dams. Increasing taxes is not the answer until we figure out how to more effectively spend what we already pay.
Rant over.
"fintail" (fintail)
03/31/2017 at 12:20, STARS: 2
Hey, those pensions for the lucky class won’t fund themselves - I mean, gotta fix those roads lol.
"Azrek" (azrek)
03/31/2017 at 12:22, STARS: 1
Research Task: “Have gas taxes improved a state....ever?”
"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
03/31/2017 at 12:24, STARS: 2
Tax burden is one reason I left California. I found it impossible to get beyond living pay check to pay check while making a decent middle class income.
"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
03/31/2017 at 12:25, STARS: 1
If you think taxes are bad in Cali, come to Ontario (Canada). We are on par (or more) with Hawaii. Out hydro (electricity) costs more then Hawaii pays.
"KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs" (kusabisensei)
03/31/2017 at 12:26, STARS: 1
Oh Governor Moonbeam and the CA Democrats.
Never met a tax they didn’t raise.
"ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy" (bakeshake)
03/31/2017 at 12:26, STARS: 0
...we drive on crumbling roads and have collapsing dams. Increasing taxes is not the answer...
Mutually exclusive statements. How can you simultaneously complain about sub-par conditions of infrastructure and the simplest way to get funds for repair?
If you have a better suggestion as to how to pay for fixing the roads, do tell.
"DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time" (dc3ls-)
03/31/2017 at 12:30, STARS: 0
The fact that Jerry Brown is governor again makes this song even better.
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Jerry Brown 2020? lol
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
03/31/2017 at 12:32, STARS: 1
A Democratic governor and Legislature wanting to raise taxes? Say it ain’t so!
"ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy" (bakeshake)
03/31/2017 at 12:33, STARS: 0
Have you heard of the Interstate Highway System?
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
03/31/2017 at 12:34, STARS: 1
I agree with you but after a little reading, this Vince Fong guy’s plan isn’t ideal either.
The problem with most states including California is that they don’t spend enough on infrastructure and divert money from their infrastructure funds to other purposes, because they have the surplus in the infrastructure fund from not spending it on infrastructure as much as they should be.
Here in Wisconsin, we actually passed a constitutional amendment a few years ago that required transportation funds to be spent on transportation. It was very popular and had lots of bipartisan support.
It didn’t have the additional thing from Vince Fong about 30% of the money needing to be spent on traffic relief, but then again we don’t have traffic like California. I can tell you that generally speaking, our highways are decently maintained for a place with winters like ours, and the pace of improvements to highways and local roads has accelerated since the amendment passed. We keep getting more and more slightly complicated intersections that have been creatively engineered to reduce traffic with weird ramps and traffic circles and whatnot. But will still have our fair share of crumbling local roads.
So my main thing with Vince Fong’s idea is that 30% for traffic relief requirement, that could be its own problem in the making. Because how do you define traffic relief, and does it really need 30% of the whole state transportation budget every year?
"ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy" (bakeshake)
03/31/2017 at 12:35, STARS: 0
State contributions to pensions generally come from general fund revenues, not gas tax revenues.
"Azrek" (azrek)
03/31/2017 at 12:38, STARS: 0
For Federal Taxes, sure. States are only required to pay 10% of Federal Interstate Act.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
03/31/2017 at 12:41, STARS: 1
While I agree that a tax gas is regressive I still support it. You can overcome the regressiveness by changing the way you tax income, tax the first $xk less and what is earned over $xk more, and you’re done; regressiveness compensated.
Why is a gas tax wise? It’s a strong motivator for people to be less wasteful with fossil fuels, which is important for a variety of diverse and obvious reasons. It places the tax burden on those that pollute the most, increase dependency on oil from crony regimes the most and who wear down the infrastructure the most. So it’s absolutely fair.
"ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy" (bakeshake)
03/31/2017 at 12:44, STARS: 0
And that matching money comes from the state’s gas tax. All other federal-aid projects are 80 federal/20 state, and the state gets that 20% from their gas tax revenue.
You can’t obligate federal funds unless you have the matching funds to back it up. Therefore, your ability to do anything at all largely depends on how much gas tax revenue you have in your state.
"ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy" (bakeshake)
03/31/2017 at 12:48, STARS: 0
I wish we would do the same in Alabama. A portion of our highway funds are diverted to the state troopers and court system.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
03/31/2017 at 12:52, STARS: 0
From what the linked editorial says, it seems that California has been diverting transportation funds to the general fund.
"BorkBorkBjork" (tbirdlemons)
03/31/2017 at 12:56, STARS: 0
Just do what every other Californian is doing: Move to Texas.
"Azrek" (azrek)
03/31/2017 at 13:09, STARS: 0
The problem with these taxes, regardless of how it is or is not supposed to work, is it encourages folks to get away from Gas (Hydrogen/Electric cars). Much like the Cigarette tax that promises a windfall of money, but then people stop smoking.
So they will have to find money elsewhere...yet again....
In order to fill the coffers for a serious long term infrastructure need, they have to get beyond gas taxes and start taxing other things or they will always be chasing a moving target.
Bottom Line: It doesn’t work...especially now when folks have alternatives to gas.
"ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy" (bakeshake)
03/31/2017 at 13:09, STARS: 0
As is Alabama. A quick and easy way to improve roads would be to put an end to that, but that would require the state legislators to have spines.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
03/31/2017 at 13:10, STARS: 0
And therein lies the problem.
"merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc" (merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc)
03/31/2017 at 13:38, STARS: 0
The way to offset the added costs would be to offer credits back to folks based on income levels. That way you could credit money back to folks that don’t make x amount a year, and then sliding scale over that until you get to a point that the credit disappears. The credits could also be based on the surplus created by the increased taxes so you would never credit back more than x amount of the surplus, but that would mean a different value each year for the taxpayer credits.
Sure this would credit folks that don’t drive too, but you could also tie in a yearly mileage function too. Don’t you guys have yearly emissions inspections? Mileage for a vehicle would be recorded. That could be used to figure out a credit.
The biggest benefit would be, as the Wisconsinite stated, to make sure the money goes into infrastructure instead of elsewhere.
"Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero" (sampsonite24)
03/31/2017 at 13:40, STARS: 1
i support an increase in the gas tax if it puts more money towards improving the nations infastructure
"diplodicus" (diplodicus)
03/31/2017 at 13:42, STARS: 1
I know how you feel. Michigan raised state gas tax by 7.3c and vehicle registration by 20%. Supposedly for roads but I’ll believe it when I see the new roads.
"fintail" (fintail)
03/31/2017 at 17:47, STARS: 0
Unless of course they get diverted - which they often can and do.
In an ideal world, pensions would be self-supporting, and we wouldn’t have a class of often entitled and arrogant pension collectors.