BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Waaaaahh, three whole cents a gallon! How will I EAT??!!

forget affording food, i can't even afford to drive to the grocery store, and it's only 1/8 mile away!

It's so stupid that none of those taxes/fees (or the federal ones) have any kind of adjustment for inflation. Then people still manage to be surprised when there's a shortfall...

Inflation isn't a new thing. It's been around long enough that I have to assume our elected reprehensitives have heard of it by now. So I have to assume that when they make a law that ignores inflation, they've done that on purpose.

no, it's more like "how will i afford my 2 packs of cigarettes a day when i put gas in my truck?"

most taxes are a percentage of the price of an item or earnings, thus as the cost or wages increase with inflation, the tax would do so naturally. Why on earth the registration fee isn't a percentage of Kelly Blue Book value (as determined by registered mechanic) I have no idea. But since it's a straight fee, increasing it in time would have to be done via a virtual if not an actual act of congress.

This is no big deal. He's only trying to raise $450 million of the $3.5 Billion PA needs annually to properly maintain our current state transportation system(s).

We'll still be $2 Billion short.

@ejwme: I guess that depends on how you define "most" - by dollar volume or by number of fees. I think most taxes and fees are not a simple percentage, though it's likely that most of the revenue comes from those few taxes which are. There's a metric crapload of little fees, from registration and drivers' licenses to employee "privilege taxes", marriage licenses and dog licenses.

hmm... good call, Lyle - I think rather than "most" I should have said "income and sales". I believe what I thought when I typed "most" was "most of the taxes I'm aware of paying".

Getting married has me pondering that license fee, and how to make it a percentage (and thus capable of gradually increasing with inflation without legislative red tape). Perhaps making it a tiny percentage of the combined income of the two parties involved, like 0.5% or something (heh - increasing with number of previous marriages? my dad recommended that, and he's tied the knot 5 times). I'd waive it for any marriage where both were over 65. That's just too cute to tax.

so far from original thread.... What about charging emissions for non-commercial diesel vehicles? I don't pay emissions, which I have the trucking lobby to thank I think, I couldn't find any information (other than I'm relatively low in HCs, CO, and NOs, but that leaves CO2). Seems to me there's a non-lobbied loop hole that would be easy and politically painless to close.

The hoops you have to jump through to get married in PA are already silly. You can go buy a handgun and ammo with a 5-minute background check, but a marriage license involves two trips to the city county building and a 3-day waiting period.

A marriage license fee should cover the paperwork and administrative costs to issue the license. If it is into the hundreds of dollars range, people may as well take that money and fly to Vegas to get the same thing with less hassle. Maybe a tax on divorces?

Non-commercial diesel vehicles? You mean passenger cars with diesel engines? A Jetta TDi gets something like 50 mpg, and its emissions profile is about the same as a gasoline-powered compact car. As an added benefit, you can run it on biodiesel.

I love my TDI, I get 50 highway, about 40 city (can get 45 if I'm careful), but I still feel like it's an unfair loophole and potential revenue source for the state. I'd rather pay 100$ once a year and have more public transportation options than not pay anything and be forced to drive. I'm not normal, I know.

One leading candidate for raising some major money is a Vehicle Miles Traveled tax, with the $ going specifically to transit. Say $1 for each 10,000 miles traveled. It's inherently fair, as the more veh-miles traveled in an area, the more likely transit exists in that area, or should exist and be a viable option.

It also handily gets around that annoying little 1945 amendment in the PA Constitution that restricts motor fuels taxes to be used for highways and bridges. The whole point of that amendment was to prevent gasoline taxes from supporting transit companies, most of which at the time were private, tax-paying trolleys. The thinking at the time was -- and still is -- that fuel taxes would pay for road maintenance.

Damn, $1 for 10k miles? I'd owe almost ten cents.

How do you collect a VMT tax? Does your odometer get reported to the state when you get your inspection/emissions testing done?

It already does in your annual registration.