Two Primary Transportation Funds
Highway Maintenance and Operating Fund (HMOF)
*Pays for maintenance of existing highway infrastructure and operating and personnel costs
Transportation Trust Fund (TTF)
*Pays for construction of new transportation infrastructure
*Created in 1986
State Motor Fuels Taxes (17.50 cents per gallon) FY 2005 Est.
- HMOF 14.85 cents $733.7 mil.
- TTF 2.50 cents $126.8 mil.
- DMV 0.15 cents
Every 1 cent of Fuel Tax generates $51 million in revenue
Motor Vehicle Sales and Use Tax (3 percent)
- HMOF 2 percent $385.8 mil.
- TTF 1 percent $207.7 mil.
Every 1 percent generates $208 million in revenue
Motor Vehicle License Fee ($29.50)
- HMOF $16.00 $125.4 mil.
- TTF $ 3.00 $ 21.3 mil.
- DMV $ 4.00
- State Police/General Fund/EMS $ 5.50
- Jamestown 2007 $ 1.00
State General Sales and Use Tax (5 percent)
- TTF 0.5 percent $417.5 mil.
4 comments:
Let's see,
If we add three cents to the fuel tax it would raise an additional $153,000,000.
If we add 1.5% to the tax on buying a car it would raise an additional $312,000,000.
If we add one half of a penny to the sales tax it would raise an additional $417,000,000.
Here we could increase revenue by almost $900,000,000 per year without borrowing a dime that our kids would have to pay back.
What is the matter with pay as you go for transportation? It used to be a Virginia tradition.
Until the Republicans took the majority that is...
People in the Valley don't care how much debt their politicians run up just as long as they promise not to raise taxes.
Of course it helps if they bash gays and Mexicans while they're at it. Shows folks that they're good 'Mericans.
I like this ala carte method of evaluating funding options. Why haven't our Assemblycritters provided Virginia taxpayers with this tool?
Raising the fuels tax would serve two purposes; 1)it would lay the transportation funding burden on the source of this problem - motor vehicles, 2)and decrease our demand for oil.
Increase the fuels tax $0.15/gallon, raise $765,000,000/year for transportation. This isn't enough to have people driving to other states to fill up, but it does provide incentives to drive more effient vehicles, use public transportation, and it puts us on the road to weaning ourselves from foreign oil and foreign wars.
Make up the difference with a small title tax increase, and dedicate a half penny increase in the sales tax to a mass transit trust fund to subsidize public/private mass transportation development.
An even better solution would be for a national fuels tax increase to maintain a level interstate fuel cost. America has to recognize that cheap gas isn't a Constitutional right, and our dependence on foreign oil will bring us ever more costly wars.
Pay as you go... Sounds like a great idea to me. Which candidate will dare add this to their platform in the next election. I'd have to think real carefully about not voting for him or her.
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