There are two folks in the Wisconsin Legislature who almost share a name. There's Senator Alan Lasee, President of the Senate and a patronizing old fool who loves roadbuilders, and then there's Representative Frank Lasee, who GETS IT and is RIGHT on the issues.
Things that the patronizing old fool will NOT tell you:
We have 21 miles of roads per 1000 residents in our state – 17th most in the nation. Eighty-two percent of our roads are paved – 6th highest in the nation, and more than double the ratio of paved roads per capita in Michigan and Illinois.
And we pay for it. In 2002 (the latest data available), we spent $557 per capita on our state and local highways – 35% more than the national average, and 14th highest per-capita road spending in the country.
That’s just the state and local spending. In all, including federal money and bonding, we spent over $2.2 billion on roads last year – not including the $370 million Governor Doyle raided from the Transportation Fund to support other spending.
That information is from the RIGHT Lasee.
Still buy the patronizing old fool's line that dirt roads and buggies are the inevitable cataclysmic result of stopping taxation without representation?
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4 comments:
Dad29 - Do you have yearly data for total gas taxes collected by the state over the last 20 years?
I think the automatic rate increase is only a small piece of the equation, because more drivers are driving more miles in less efficient vehicles. I am confident that the amount of taxes collected has increased dramatically more than the gas tax indexing would indicate. I also suspect that these numbers are kept hidden to suppress an even larger taxpayer revolt.
Here's a crazy proposal, index gas taxes collected to inflation. If state collections increase faster than inflation, reduce the gas tax for the following year. Watch the roadbuilders and their legislative whores gag on that one.
I would like someone to put forward an argument that dirt and gravel roads are a bad thing. I have been to Duluth, a decent sized city, a couple times, and once I'm a whole mile outside the city limits I can find a gravel road.
Needless to say, our roads aren't going to get cheaper. In the next 10 years, Kenosha-Milwaukee will cost $1.3 billion give or take. The zoo will cost $1.8 billion. We're probably looking at $1-2 billion for other parts of the Milwaukee freeway system. That all adds up to about an addition $1000 per capita. Happy Advent!
I found the motor fuel tax revenue data at DOT's website and it is worse than I imagined. There was never a need for indexing because indexing was based on a faulty premise - that use of motor fuels would not grow with the economy.
I posted details at http://headlessblogger.blogspot.com/
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