One big problem is diversion of funds into non highway expenditures:
Transit use, which is mainly concentrated in just six cities (the municipalities of Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco), received 17 percent of total federal user fees in 2010, even though its share of the nation’s surface travel amounted to roughly 1 percent and transit users pay nothing into the HTF. Other diversions included programs such as nature trails and landscaping, environmental study and mitigation efforts, community preservation, ferry boats, and bicycle paths.
There will have to be a shift away from gas in how roads are funded, metering systems and such will become necessary I think.
Seems to be mostly the lib states, not trying to get political, but here in ‘Keep it Wierd’ Portland, OR, they built a BEAUTIFUL new bridge. Now we already have about a dozen bridges, and most are falling apart.
But we needed a NEW one, which will be for BICYCLES, PEDESTRIANS, AND TRANSIT BUSES/TRAINS…NO CARS!
NOW, the city does not have funds for roads and wants to institute a TAX for each household and business to pay for road repair…FFS.
In my county to help with road repairs we have a road user fee. This fee is charged when you pay property tax annually. It’s a small amount but it helps overall.
Steven
In this town the prostitutes paid for all the roads to be built. Now they would like to drive the prostitutes out (even though it’s perfectly legal here) with no way to maintain the roads.
That NEW bridge comes equipped with a special “mood lighting” system that is computer controlled to change with the weather and river current and whatnot. Wonder how much that cost.
If you could trust the politicians I would pay a little more gas tax.
But this is what happens to the gas tax in Wisconsin.
It’s reported Doyle robbed about 2 billion from the gas tax fund to use on other projects and cover up shortfalls in his budget.
It all started with a fish fry - at least with the report of a fish fry - and then the whole affair got fishier and fishier.
A TV station in Madison, WISC-TV, reported that the administration of Gov. Jim Doyle was spending funds rifled from the state’s gas tax on a free fish fry and child care. The state Department of Transportation had used the freebies to attract more people to a public meeting on a Verona Road expansion project.
Niiice. I expect a lot of Big Blocks runnin’ around the streets more than in a long time next Spring
(not that it makes a huge difference, but ther’s always a nice psychological boost when gas isn’t 4.00/gallon, at least for me)
I’ve always believed that government collects more than enough to fund the programs that they need to. If people were smart enough to calculate how much of their hard earned money they actually pay in taxes, the revolution would have already happened.
Not around much Steven. Bought a commercial building a few months ago with a buddy of mine and we are working our butts off trying to get a new business up and running. I’ll post up the details on here eventually. We’re hoping to have the doors opened on Dec 1st. 16 hour days don’t allow for much time on the Cougar sites.
Is that for a US gallon (3.78 litres)? or Imperial gallon (4.5 litres)?
Here in Vancouver Canada we were paying up to $7 CDN for a cdn gallon of Premium and Regular was about $6.50, but it has come down a lot since then; now about $5.50/gal.
Very few people in the US understand what the petro dollar is but soon everyone will. Traveling abroad in the early 90’s I was amazed how every 12 year old kid in any country I went to knew exactly what a $100 bill was worth in their currency. Here is a short video. There are many more videos that go into great length.
They have books to sell, but I would not count the dollar out. There are several reasons for this.
First off, the US is going to be the largest oil producer in the world again very soon. Imports are dropping like a rock and we are already above the 1970 peak in oil production. Basically everything you ever read about peak oil is now proven to be BS. And oil is actually just the frosting on the cake. We have so much natural gas that they are going to start upgrading it into liquids like gasoline. As we get better at this technology it will change the entire scope of energy.
Our dependence on imports is going down fast… every other major economy is going up.
Taken together this is having a huge impact on the balance of trade between the US and the rest of the world. This makes the dollar stronger.
Which is currently being born out by the price of gold and oil both dropping because the dollar has become more valuable.
Most international oil transactions are done electronically. That is to say that no actual $100 bills are involved. The rest of the world uses far and a way more cash, in the form of currency, than the US does. We are getting away with inflating our currency primarily because that cash doesn’t come back to the US.
Agreed, the billions of barrels they keep finding here and there are mind boggling, when the peak oil debate came about in the early 70’s (actually earlier) they never fathomed the techniques being used today. What I find fascinating is why the dollar is so powerful and is the undisputed world reserve currency. Our dollar is backed by something much more powerful than a yellow colored lead, oil is what backs our currency and every time oil is traded it is done so in dollars, albeit electronic dollars. I wonder how strong the dollar would be if the petro dollar died? More and more often you are hearing the call for the end of the petro dollar in the last few years from world leaders.
As the dollar becomes more valuable it is less likely to be replaced with any other currency for any purpose. The main thing is that you can buy things with a dollar pretty much any where in the world. There are so many greenbacks in circulation that no one is going to start trashing them.
