Getting it Wrong on Transportation
The Virginia General Assembly has passed a transportation bill which does not raise gas taxes, but instead takes the money from the General Fund. While it did put secondary road responsibility with localities, which is appropriate, it is mostly the product of bad budgetary policy.
Transportation and Mass Transit should be paid for with fees, tolls, gas taxes and local property taxes in a separate fund with local control of all projects.
The income tax should fund education, which is redistributional, as well as other social programs, such as TANF, foodstamps, Medicaid (for non-seniors, senior Medicaid should be federally funded), as well as corrections and mental hygene.
I write quite extensively on these issues on my Iowa Center for Fiscal Equity home page. I also talk about a long term solution to transportation which replaces the personal consumption of fossil fuels with a buried and computer controlled electric car system. Check them both out if you want real solutions - and call me.
posted by Michael Bindner at 6:33 AM
1 Comments:
Virginia is not alone. There is such a pressure to invest in more roads that hardly any legislator and any level can resist the tide. IMHO, we should declare a 3-year moratorium on all new road construction or expansion. The only funds spent on highways should be for maintenance and to repair unsafe roadways.
The rest of the money should be invested in whatever kind of sustainable, sensible and safe variety of transport (i.e., not autos and trucks) works for the state. At this point, they are simply throwing taxpayer money down a rathole.
9:46 AM
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