Mauro Diotallevi wrote: > That's why I'm also not a big fan of Dan Minette's plan to raise gasoline > taxes by 50 cents per gallon every year for the next 10 years, unless there > was some offset in place for the working poor. People below certain income > levels can qualify for programs like food stamps -- maybe they can qualify > for a card that they could swipe at the pump that would automatically > eliminate some of the taxes. Then I might go for Dan's plan. Of course, a > black market for such cards would immediately spring up, and it would be > extremely difficult to police. Also, by letting some people not pay the > taxes you end up offsetting some of the environmental benefit of the tax.
That's certainly not a bad plan. The way to keep this from hurting the poor is to make sure that most, if not all, of the taxes went directly to regional mass transit efforts. I also think that this country would do well to start moving some of the major interstate funds back into encouraging reliable interstate mass transit passenger travel. It's still remarkable to me how we sold one of the most prized passenger rail networks in the world to bankrupt frauds... I keep saying that maybe it's about time we took back the inner-city "commercial" rail lines for public use as easy right of ways for more modern passenger light rail systems... There's just so much that could be done to benefit transportation, and yet right now legislators are still just thinking inside the "interstate roads for masses of congested automobiles" box. Remind me sometime to talk about my crazy idea for air travel... -- --Max Battcher-- http://www.worldmaker.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
