Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Higher gas tax not needed for roads

There is no tax or increase in taxes that politicians and lobbyists don’t love. The fact that an increase in the gasoline tax is not needed to fund roads and bridges seems to escape them.

The editorial from the Miami Herald reprinted in the Sun (“Congress must repair our roads,” Jan. 20) said taxes utilized to fund the Highway Trust Fund haven’t risen since 1997.

True, but those taxes not rising in 17 years is no justification for an increase.

Also, gasoline prices at the pump decreasing nearly 40 percent is not a rational justification to increase the tax.

The shortfall in the fund is because Congress has decided to utilize it to subsidize ferries, mass transit, street cars, sidewalks, hiking and biking trails, urban planning and landscaping nationwide. Users of the listed services contribute nothing to the fund.

Federal spending on these side items has increased by 38 percent since 2008, while highway spending is flat.

The rationale behind the transference of funds is that Federal Highway Administration data show the condition, quality and safety of U.S. highways are steadily improving. The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank in 2009 said roads have “indisputably” improved over the past two decades.

If federal highway funds are utilized for their original purpose — highways and bridges — the fund will remain 98 percent solvent for the next 10 years.

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