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IMO you cannot tax life critical consumable like gasoline solely for the purposes of developing an alternative transportation system when a majority of the taxpayers will receive no benefit.



I agree with your point that you shouldn't tax those who receiveno benefit, but not that a majority of the people won't receive a benefit.

Right now, you are correct, the majority of people in areas with mass-transit solutions still don't use them. But that's because, right now, driving your own automobile is still an option.

Fact of the matter is, mass-transit solutions are 1> extremely expensive, and 2> take upwards of 25 years to fully construct.

You can't wait until something becomes a real problem to look into a solution, you have to plan ahead for it. At some point in time we will all be using these alternatives; there will be no other choice, and the only way we'll ever even see them is if we pay for them now.

Much the same as why I pay a School tax on my Property, while I have no children in school. It's expected that, at some point in time, you will use the public schools, so you should pay a tax on it so that they are there when you need them.

Whether you know it or not, if you live in a metropolitan area, you probably already pay some sort of mass-transit tax on your gasoline or property taxes on top of whatever fares you would pay to use the service.

Many areas charge these taxes even if they don't currently offer any mass-transit alternatives so that they money will be readily available when the feasibilty studies are complete (which take 3-7 years).

I agree that $15 can make a difference for some people. But, as I said (and you may have missed it, as it was an edit), these are the very people who will be the first to take advantage of alternative transportation when it's available. In the meantime, carpool if you can't afford to drive -- it's going to happen to all of us in the very near future. If two people who drove now share a car, the tax is nulled. They save money on gas, wear on a car, and keep one less car on the road.

Some places have taxed property for transit solutions -- but then you're really moving away from the source. You're taxes relatively wealthy individuals who will be the last to use mass-transit, and may not even drive anywhere as it is.

The only logical tax on anything transportation based is a gasoline tax. It's the only way you're receiving the tax money from people who are likely to use your service. Whether they do or not is their choice.

If you wanna see unfair gasoline taxes, come work for the railroads. My company pays hundreds of millions a year in diesel fuel taxes that are used 100% to subsidize highway construction -- meaning we pay a tax to subsidize our primary competitor and allow them use of a 100% free infrastructure, while we also pay for and maintain 100% of the cost of our own with absolutely no government assistance. Trucks don't pay the tax -- only water and rail transportation pays this particular highway tax.

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