Posted by nickntiff on 05/13/09Last updated 05/13/09
In the Seattle PI article below, they talk about a possible tax, that would tax the miles YOU drive in your car.
I have no problem with paying for roads, since I use them. BUT the problem I have is that I have already paid for them. I pay a very high gas tax, and all sorts of other taxes that shoudl be MORE than enough to pay for the roads. But they spend all this money on mass tranist projects that no one uses since most people just want to drive their cars.
Here's the contact info for the Seattle Department of Transportation Director
who supports this:
-
Crunican, Grace
Phone Number: 206-684-5000
Fax Number: 206-684-5180
E-mail Address: Grace.Crunican@seattle.gov
Also, please contact your state legislators and tell them what you think of this.
Washington State
Legislative Hotline:
800.562.6000
By AUBREY COHEN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Washington state should allow a pilot project to tax drivers by the mile in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, a Seattle official said Tuesday.
"Let us try it," Seattle Department of Transportation Director Grace Crunican said during a morning Urban Land Institute discussion on how to meet massive and changing infrastructure needs.
William Hudnut, a consultant and former mayor of Indianapolis, called for some combination of a "vehicle miles traveled" tax, tolls, congestion charges and higher gas taxes to help fill a nationwide funding gap.
"People who use the roads should pay for them," he said.
David Dye, deputy secretary of the Washington Department of Transportation, said state residents are not ready to accept paying for roads, and routinely point out that "freeway" has "free" right in the name.
But tolls are coming back to the central Puget Sound, Dye said. "That's going to be a critical part of how we finance our transportation infrastructure in the future."
Washington has around $80 billion in unfunded transportation infrastructure needs, with about half of that in the central Puget Sound, Dye said.
The American Society of Civil Engineers calculated this year that U.S. infrastructure needs $2.2 trillion in repairs and upgrades over the next five years.
The federal stimulus package put $132.4 billion toward infrastructure, noted Terry Hanson, a senior manager at consulting firm Ernst & Young, which wrote this year's "Pivot Point" infrastructure report with the Urban Land Institute.
"This is a start," Hanson said. "Everywhere you look we have problems with our aging infrastructure."
Seattle also has gotten a start on addressing its infrastructure needs, with the state Legislature approving plans to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel -- Gov. Chris Gregoire is set to sign that bill Tuesday afternoon -- and tolls to fund a replacement Evergreen Point Bridge across Lake Washington, speakers said.
"Today really is a very important pivot day," Seattle Downtown Association Chairman Patrick Gordon said, referring to the viaduct bill signing and the fact that that demolition of the viaduct will open up the downtown waterfront.
Reauthorization later this year of the federal surface transportation bill will provide a chance to focus more on transit and promoting compact development, Hanson said.
"We face a unique opportunity to rethink how we do things," he said. "Last time we had a significant change was probably in the 1950s, when we developed the interstate highway system."
Dye said that, for many people, terms like the "Urban Land Institute" and "smart growth" sound "sort of like communism."
He also focused on the difficulty in getting people to agree on fixes, quipping: "There's 400,000 transportation experts in the city of Seattle alone."
And, while change may be coming, it's not here yet, he said. "The automobile is not going away any time soon."
http://www.seattlepi.com/transportation/406125_infrastructure12.html
Poll: What forms of transportation do you use the most?
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Categories: Action Item, Current Events, Socialism, State Legislation
Tags: socialism, washington state, mileage tax, snohomish, pierce, King, seattle, communism
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