Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/860257
S ince Congress and the Trump administration are in a repeal and replace mood, I have another suggestion for them: Repeal the federal fuel tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel. Why? Three reasons: First: The program no longer works. Created back when Washington, D.C., functioned properly, our national interstate program boosted commerce and improved national security. It was funded by gas taxes – debt-free, pay as you go. Today, the wisdom brought to bear for the Eisenhower interstate program has devolved into gridlock. The five- to six-year cycle for highway bills that served so well for almost half a century turned into a series of tenuous one-year extensions that left contractors wondering whether there would be any work from year to year. The new bill, the FAST Act (Fixing America's Surface Transportation) is a little better, but Congress didn't have the courage to find funding for the last three years of the cycle – so once again, contractors, equipment manufacturers and a multi-billion-dollar industry are left hanging. Second: The money belongs to the states to begin with. The federal government only collects it and then sends it back to the states, which typically kick in matching funds. Third: The federal gas tax is not indexed to inflation and hasn't been raised since 1993. This neglect should be reason enough to call for its demise. No government program I know of has had its funding frozen for a quarter of a century – proof that Congress is not in the least serious about infrastructure. If a state wants to plow that money back into the roads, great. If a state wants to spend that money to put Ritalin in its drinking water or give it back to citizens and let the roads go to hell, so be it. State governments are more transparent, accountable and closer to the voters' needs anyway. More than half the states in the last three years have legislated their own gas tax increases. Every poll taken in the last 10 years has shown broad support for increased infrastructure funding. And in a remarkable example, the South Carolina legislature this year overrode the governor's veto and enacted a state gas tax increase (12 cents over six years), proving that the closer you get to the people, the better the political decisions. If the citizens of South Carolina – the reddest of red states – want this, I think it's obvious that Washington no longer represents the interests of the people, conservative or liberal. There's taxation but no representation. The federal gas tax has outlived the honest and patriotic men and women who created it. A program created by the Greatest Generation shouldn't be left in the care of the worst political generation in American history. End the federal gas tax and let the states figure it out. August 2017 | EquipmentWorld.com 74 final word | by Tom Jackson End the gas tax TJackson@randallreilly.com