Motorists' habits spur call for tax increase

[Calif Cowgirl]

So we cut back on our fuel consumption like good Americans...and now the federal government is going to add 50 cents to every gallon of gas because we cut back TOO much. A bit of a catch 22 situation.

Providing a link instead of copying the article cause not sure how copyrights work as far as cut and pasting to forums.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hOzgHaoI8FMLssRaEivvpugJO9tg

Here is how it starts out:

Motorists' habits spur call for tax increases
19 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren't raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

That has the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation talking about increasing the federal fuel tax.

A 50 per cent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

[FlaGator]

That's our government in action for you and shows the danger of government that goes fat on taxes. The .50 cent a gallon tax was introduced to reduce gas usage and, as you pointed out, now that we've done that they want to increase the tax. It can be understood now that the tax had nothing to do with driving habits and all to do with revenue generation.

[ironhorsedriver]

Got to pay for all the bailouts somehow.

[Chuck58]

So, what else is new? We had to know that, if we all tried to conserve (we haven't), they'd raise taxes to make up the loss.

A dozen or so years ago in Albuquerque NM, the City asked everyone to conserve water. The people did. The following year, water rates went up by a substantial amount. Reason? People weren't using enough water and the city was losing money.

Government ain't gonna lose money if there's any way around it. God forbid they should lay off people and make the rest put in a full day's work.