From: Adam Maas
<[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 1:14 PM, P. J. Alling <[email protected]> wrote:
> <snip>
>> In the US road taxes, in the form of gasoline taxes not only pay for road
>> repair but also subsidize various rail systems, which cannot pay for
>> themselves out operating revenue.
>
> That rather rankles me.
>
> Gas taxes don't go into some special fund which is only used to pay
> for the upkeep of roads and pay for money-losing railways.
>
> Like all other taxes, gas taxes go into the general coffers of the
> government and are used to pay for all government expenditures.
>
> You make it sound like motorists "pay their own way" (ie: ?they alone
> are paying for road repairs) as well as subsidize railways, when in
> fact ~all~ tax payers (motorists or not) contribute for the upkeep of
> roads and railways.
>
> cheers,
> frank
>
Depends on the jurisdiction, in some gas taxes go into a
transportation fund (which typically ends up paying for roads,
bridges, airports and rail), in others its general fund. The tendency
has been to move to the latter so that politicians can fund social
services via lucrative gas taxes.
Federal gasoline taxes are all allocated into the Federal Highway Trust
Fund - by law. What does get spent from that fund can only be allocated
to highway construction or repair. The Federal Government takes in more
in fuel taxes than it annually spends on highways, and the "surplus" is
"invested" ... just like the Social Security "surplus" is invested.
Subsidies to aviation come from the "Airports and Airways Trust Fund"
monies from taxing aviation fuels and passenger tickets, passenger
flight segments, international arrivals/departures, cargo waybills, and
frequent flyer mile awards from non-airline sources like credit cards.
Part of the subsidy comes in the form of differential taxation of
Commercial Fuel ($0.043/gal) and General Aviation Fuel ($0.193/gal for
Avgas and $0.218/gal for Jet Fuel).
Actually, it probably works the same way with highway taxes, since big
commercial long-haul truck lines get rebates on their taxes
Only about 60% of what is taken by Social Security taxes is paid out to
current beneficiaries. The rest is "kept in a trust fund" so there'll be
enough when it comes time to pay benefits to the baby boomers.
At least that was the rationale they used when they doubled Social
Security taxes in 1984
For 2005 the Federal Budget broke down:
28.7% - Community and regional development
(Federal grants to State & Local Governments)
15.4% - Foreign affairs - State Department
(CIA's budget is mostly hidden in here rather than in Defense)
13.4% - Interest on debt
12.4% - Medicare
11.4% - General government
9.2% - Administration of justice (including War on Drugs)
9.0% - Defense - not including Iraq & Afghanistan
8.1% - Transportation (mostly highway spending)
7.0% - Social Security benefits
5.8% - Veterans' benefits
5.7% - Natural resources and environment
4.0% - Science and technology
3.7% - Agriculture
2.9% - Medicaid and other health related
2.0% - Unemployment and welfare
1.3% - Education and training
0.8% - Energy (including nuclear weapons production)
Wasn't able to find a breakdown for more recent budgets. For some reason
the government has been reticent to tell us how our tax money was spent
in 2006 - 2008
Note that if you're merely talking subsidy level, indirect subsidies
of the airlines are far higher than anything else per passenger mile.
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