Reason In the News

Gas Taxes, Tolls, and Paying for Roads

News-Press (MO)

January 10, 2012

St. Joseph (MO) News-Press Columnist Ken Newton writes:

These days, if you believe a Reason-Rupe public opinion survey taken in December, at least 58 percent of Americans would prefer paying for new highways or highway lanes through tolls rather than tax increases. At least 55 percent favor governments taking private concerns as partners in building public infrastructure.

The gasoline taxes that go to the building and upkeep of public roads have the fundamental unfairness of many taxes. That is, taxes a person pays at a pump in St. Joseph will be used to build a bridge that person will never cross in Southeast Missouri.

In all corners of the state, motorists pay for roads they will never drive along. Call it a justice constructed from broad-based inequity.

Full column here.

The December Reason-Rupe transportation poll mentioned in the story is here.