Jay,

Do you have any research showing that fuel taxes are not supporting the
costs of roads? I remember a story on television about the transportation
fund being held in surplus to help balance the budget or something.

I have always toyed with the gas tax idea, it makes a lot of sense in many
ways. The only problem is that it is a drain on the economy in several bad
ways, and I can't get my arms around what the unintended consequences might
be.

One of them would likely be higher taxes to build more public transportation
unless much of the fuel tax is earmarked for that. More public
transportation would mean an increase in corruption in government as the
extra control over where people go and how is just too yummy for those
folks.





"Jay" wrote in message
om...
Roger Halstead wrote in message
The problem is the refineries are running at capacity trying to meet a
record demand and until we, in general "conserve", the demand will
keep the price up there.

"Running at capacity" is just a b_llsh_t excuse for increasing
profits. They fear (rightly so) that people would get ****ed off if
they realized the gas companies largely control the market and set
whatever price they damn well please. If they ask for too much,
people will modify (in the long run) their consumption, if they ask
for too little, they've left money on the table.

With the amount of money that is at stake, do you think that for a
minute that the agrigate gasoline use of 10's of millions of people
would be so hard to predict that they would actually be caught off
guard (as opposed to intentionally having a shortage) by days getting
longer in the summer? Its been summer before, last year as I
remember, and I'm not even an high paid analyst.

If you really want to send a message to those crooks, support a
gasoline tax (in leiu of general obligation bonds and other taxes)
that fully supports the cost of people driving motor vehicles. This
includes road contruction, maintanence, highway patrol, uninsured
motorists going to the hospital, polution, alternative fuel
development, etc.

Its very simple, use more, pay more. Its crazy to subsidize the
consumption of road fuels with other taxes. Also its hard to jack up
prices when the actual costs of driving are being paid at the pump.
It will give people an incentive to conserve. You'll pay more at the
pump but less on April 15th. How well you make out will depend on how
much fuel you use.