Bruce Posted: At the $1.04 per vehicle mile, that's 75% of the total income produced in the area.
Let's assume that the average cost of food ($350) and shelter ($650) per household is $1,000 per month. That's $12,000 per year. Therefore the average household has no more than $24,000 per year to spend on everything else: taxes, entertainment, travel, health care, and all of those other things your money goes for. If we use the $1.04 per vehicle mile figure and multiply it by the 26 billion, we get $27,040 per household to pay those vehicle costs. Anybody notice a shortage of money for all of those other things? Just in case anybody wants to argue for fewer miles traveled, on average, let's use 12,000 miles per household. But remember those other miles being travelled on your behalf. That would mean $13,520 per household for vehicle costs. That leaves $10,480 for everything else. According to the 1998 tax booklets, an income of $36,000 would have paid $2,754 in FICA and Medicare taxes, $2,300 in state income tax, and $4,300 in Federal tax. That's $9,354 in total taxes, leaving $1,126 (less than $100 per month) for everything else. Nick replies: Unfortunately this data probably isn't far from the truth since they are including externalized costs also. This is from the following link:http://www.transact.org/states/metro.asp?s=Minnesota Minneapolis-St. Paul Summary Portion of Family Budget Devoted to Transportation: 18.4% Annual Household Spending on Transportation: $8,683 Total Household Expenditures on Transportation in Minneapolis-St. Paul: $10.9 billion That means $8,683 in direct transportation costs and using Bruce's estimates for shelter, food (12,000) and taxes (9,354), a household would be spending $30,037 on just the essentials. This does indeed mean there is very little left over for most households. Furthermore, I don't see auto ownership as a "choice" for most people (other than a few Minneapolitans like me) since it is virtually impossible to live in this state or even our fair city without owning a car (even sharing a car between two adults would be extremely difficult if not impossible for most people). Therefore if its not a choice, one can definitely make the argument that the a large portion of the $8,683 per year per household expense is simply a "tax" by another name. A car is essentially the cost of entrance into our state economy. Additionally, since the $8,683 annually doesn't even include all of the taxes that go toward roads (It would include the gas tax) and the costs passed on to the consumer for free parking, etc, e are definitely spending far too much on getting around. It seems to me that between the externalized costs and the direct costs this is an extremely inefficient transportation system and probably does result in somewhere in the range of $10-$14K per household when all the costs are added in (Don't forget the real costs in lost productivity due to people who can't afford the "entrance fee" not contributing to the workforce and often receiving governmental support, a garage costs roughly $12K in land and construction or an additional $720 per year at 6% over 30 years built into your housing costs, etc.) Surely we could have the best transit system in the world for a lot something less than $9K per household annually. That said, personally I think Minneapolis should look for some way to raise funding for transit since we have a state that doesn't seem to care about paying all this money for nothing. My suggestion for the funding is laid out briefly on the MN-Politics-Discussion and in the post from a few days back regarding City vs. Suburbs: a solution. My 2 cents, Sincerely, Nick Frank North Loop This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message. Any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited. TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
