Tim Bonham says: But Dan, you DON'T pay for the roads you drive on. The Dept. of Transportation obtains 2/3rds of it's funds directly from the general state fund. Only 1/3rd is paid for by the fuel taxes, etc.
Wendy replies: Actually, no. The highway user tax distribution fund (which funds MnDOT, as well as County State-Aid Highway payments, and Municipal State Aid (MSA) road funding) comes from 3 sources: 1. The gas tax 2. Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (the sales tax you pay when you buy a car) - a portion of this goes to roads (just over 30%), a portion to transit operating costs (just over 20%), and the remainder (a little less than half) goes to the general fund. So, auto-generated revenue goes toward both the general fund and transit. 3. License Tab Fees Depending on where you live, the amount of local property tax dollars going to highways can vary dramatically - some areas (especially rural counties) get their highways paid for completely by the state. Some others (especially metro counties like Dakota) get almost no state highway funding, and must pay for regional highway infrastructure with local taxes. Local streets are paid for part by the MSA money, and in part by property taxes or assessments, or in the case of some new developments in the metro, they are paid for by the developer, and the cost is passed on in the price of the home. (And some cities get local government aid, which helps to pay for roads or anything else - Mpls gets 20% of all LGA paid out by the state, most of the rest goes to Greater MN or St. Paul/inner suburbs. Growth suburbs get none.) While the state general fund money is not going to highways, there are auto-related taxes going to the general fund, and the general fund is now ahead by something in the neighborhood of $6 billion via taxes on cars. Also, the Federal Transit Administration funding, for projects such as light rail and BRT, comes from the federal gas tax - 1/6 of the federal gas tax goes to transit. Most of the remainder comes back for highways. No other federal money goes to highways. So, if you live in Minneapolis and don't drive a car (yes, there is a Minneapolis connection here) - you can rest assured that you are not contributing one red cent to highways (even if your bus drives on them), but you are a beneficiary of taxes that are paid by automobile drivers, so perhaps it would be okay to use all of your fingers when you wave at them. One would assume that you would like the ambulance and fire truck to be able to get to where you live, so hopefully you feel some obligation to chip in on local streets. Have a great day- Wendy Wulff Lakeville REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
