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1 Gerald Prante, Questions to Ask Before Raising the Federal Gas Tax 1 (2007)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffjjxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FOUNDATION August 27, 2007 Questions to Ask Before Raising the Federal Gas Tax Fiscal Fact No. 99 Two proposals have recently been put forth by members of Congress to raise the federal excise tax on gasoline. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) has proposed one, along with a carbon tax, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) has proposed a different plan to increase the tax in order to raise money for infrastructure, in light of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. In this Fiscal Fact, we present questions that elected officials in Washington should ask before choosing to raise the gas tax. Are our current spending priorities out of whack? In short, yes. Ideally, every possible expenditure on transportation would be ordered and evaluated based on its value to society. If transportation spending appropriation was done this way, it would be obvious at what level the gas tax should be set: when the benefits from the next most valuable project were not worth the additional gas taxes that would be necessary to fund the project. Unfortunately, in today's political climate, such an order is not even close to the reality. It is not utopian, however, to think that repairing decaying bridges would naturally be considered more important than building visitors centers, planting flowers or renaming highways. When the priorities are totally out of whack, why should the public support a gas tax increase? It may be true that the next item on the agenda is worth a gas tax hike. However, it may also be the case that an item we are currently spending money on is not worth the gas taxes being paid to fund it. Unfortunately, many policymakers care too much about ribbon-cutting and playing politics than doing what is in the best public interest. What is the proper role of the federal government in transportation today? The interstate highway system developed last century was built by the federal government for a variety of purposes (including defense at first). But despite current maintenance and various extensions or loops that are being constructed, according to most accounts, for all intents and purposes, the interstate highway system is a completed, federally-designed project.

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