We should devolve transportation funding to the states

[3467]

Yep Joke about state corruption it's rampant. I think there are some mass resignations in Texas .....anyway the issue makes a case for federal involvement now.

[I-39]

How about the federal gas tax only pays for Interstates and US Highways and the states take care of everything else?

Then states would rush to slap interstate signs on all their freeways

The FHWA could always limit the amount of Interstates approved then.

[froggie]

Three things that I think many commenters (and people in general) are missing in the grander context:

- SP Cook alluded to this, but the Constitution specifically points out that Congress has the power to establish Post roads.  It should also be noted that Jefferson disagreed with this and felt that roads should be entirely left to the states.

- Transit: still important, even beyond those "6 cities" mentioned by kernals.  Transit may not carry capital goods, but it certainly carries human capital and contributes considerably to economic output in those cities.  And keep in mind that cities by and large are the economic engines of this nation.  Taking Boston for example (since kernals lives in that area), the GDP for the Boston metropolitan area alone is over $400 billion, which is over 70% of the Massachusetts total and is larger than 35 states.

- Some commenters say that transit users should "pay the full cost" of their ride.  By that logic, we would have to raise the gas tax by approximately $0.50/gallon for drivers to "pay the full cost" of their roads.  It's a common misnomer that gas taxes fully pay for roads....it doesn't even come close.

[kphoger]

- SP Cook alluded to this, but the Constitution specifically points out that Congress has the power to establish Post roads.

On the other hand...

Do you or the president need to consult the Constitution every time you take a dump, to see if there's a provision in there that will allow you to do it?

[kernals12]

Three things that I think many commenters (and people in general) are missing in the grander context:

- SP Cook alluded to this, but the Constitution specifically points out that Congress has the power to establish Post roads.  It should also be noted that Jefferson disagreed with this and felt that roads should be entirely left to the states.

- Transit: still important, even beyond those "6 cities" mentioned by kernals.  Transit may not carry capital goods, but it certainly carries human capital and contributes considerably to economic output in those cities.  And keep in mind that cities by and large are the economic engines of this nation.  Taking Boston for example (since kernals lives in that area), the GDP for the Boston metropolitan area alone is over $400 billion, which is over 70% of the Massachusetts total and is larger than 35 states.

- Some commenters say that transit users should "pay the full cost" of their ride.  By that logic, we would have to raise the gas tax by approximately $0.50/gallon for drivers to "pay the full cost" of their roads.  It's a common misnomer that gas taxes fully pay for roads....it doesn't even come close.

Gas taxes don't but when combined with registration fees and car sales taxes they do.

https://www.newgeography.com/content/006415-transport-costs-subsidies-mode

Road subsidies amount to 1 cent per passenger mile, and that's all public roads, not just highways. For transit it's 1 dollar per passenger mile.

As for Boston, much of that economic activity occurs in Waltham, Framingham, and Burlington, all of which are very car dependent

[hbelkins]

And now we want to jack up the taxes on gas as prices are going up, the country is still in an economic crisis caused by the government's response to the virus and unemployment is still rising? Count me out.

I don't think it's going to happen. This is purely my idea; no official from any state has proposed that large an increase (that I know of).

When I posted the same thing a few months ago, gas prices were stable. Now might not be the best time.

There's talk in Kentucky of raising gas taxes a dime. The legislature is in session now, and because of last week's bad weather, the meeting dates were postponed. That gave them an additional week to introduce new legislation (the deadline had been last week) and the highway contractors and their pawns have been working overtime trying to get a gas tax hike going. It's really pitting two GOP groups against each other (both houses of our legislature have been controlled by the Republicans since 2017). The chamber-of-commerce and establishment types against the grassroots and Americans For Prosperity types. There's no popular support for increasing the taxes, but certain subsets of the party are pushing hard for it against the wishes of their constituents.

[hotdogPi]

It's really pitting two GOP groups against each other (both houses of our legislature have been controlled by the Republicans since 2017).

Just wondering: are these the "switched from D to R after 2010" group and the "have always been R" group?

I'm trying to better understand the South's switch from D to R and why it happened later in the state legislatures than Congress, and later in Congress than the Presidency. KY and WV were (it ended in the 2020 elections) the last two states to have what I would describe as pre-1990s Southern Democrats, and I trust you over SP Cook on this.

[hbelkins]

It's really pitting two GOP groups against each other (both houses of our legislature have been controlled by the Republicans since 2017).

Just wondering: are these the "switched from D to R after 2010" group and the "have always been R" group?

I'm trying to better understand the South's switch from D to R and why it happened later in the state legislatures than Congress, and later in Congress than the Presidency. KY and WV were (it ended in the 2020 elections) the last two states to have what I would describe as pre-1990s Southern Democrats, and I trust you over SP Cook on this.

I can't speak for West Virginia, but Kentucky's change has been gradual and occurred in different ways.

D's still have an advantage in voter registration. They basically controlled state government, and most local governments, for decades. Kentucky has only had three Republican governors since, I think the 1940s (1967-71, and he was a tax-increasing RINO; 2003-07; and 2015-19). We did have GOP senators, and an occasional GOP congressman outside the "old Fifth" district of south-central and the western portion of southeast Kentucky which was the only Republican area of the state, and the state would go R in some presidential elections.

Bill Clinton won the state in 1992 and 1996, but Al Gore from neighboring Tennessee didn't in 2000.

Republicans got control of the state Senate about 20 years ago. A handful of Democrats joined with Republicans to oust the Senate president in favor of another Democrat, but party defections and subsequent elections handed control of the Senate completely to the GOP in subsequent years. Republicans made inroads in the House, narrowing the gap, but didn't succeed in flipping control until 2016, most likely due to Donald Trump's coattails. Now the GOP has supermajorities in both chambers.

Party registration has pretty much gone from a 2:1 advantage for the D's to what we have today, which is closer to 1.3:1 in their favor. If voter registration trends continue, it's likely that Republicans will take the advantage in a decade.

In the 2018 local elections, for the first time ever, Republicans took a majority of the county judge-executive positions in the state. I haven't seen any hard numbers on the proportions of all local elected officials, but when all of the partisan positions are factored in (magistrates/commissioners, county attorneys, county court clerks, circuit court clerks, sheriffs, property valuation administrators, and those mayor and city council races that are chosen on a partisan basis, etc.) I suspect the D's still have the overall majority, although much slimmer than it was.

Much of the credit for the GOP's rise in Kentucky is given to Mitch McConnell, who has worked hard to build the party for state and local elections. (Contrary to popular belief, I detest McConnell for a variety of reasons, both political and policy-wise.)

I don't think the breakdown of establishment vs. populist/tea party types can be translated into longtime Republicans against new converts, to finally answer your question. The grassroots of the party has always been more conservative than the leadership. I've heard of some folks who changed parties before being elected to the legislature, and some of them probably owe allegiance to McConnell. In my own county, our county judge-executive comes from a Democrat family. His father ran for CJE in the 80s a couple of times but didn't win. The son, a Navy veteran who returned home after retiring and is a longtime friend of mine who's a couple of years older than me, got involved in local politics. He ran for CJE as a Democrat and, if I remember correctly, didn't get the nomination. Four years later, he ran as an independent. He finally switched to Republican and in 2018, he won a crowded primary, defeating an incumbent, and then won the general election. He's been beating the drum for a state gas tax increase.

[Alps]

Let's not let this topic stray too far into politics please. I think we have enough of a background to move onward.

[hbelkins]

It's my understanding that for the fourth year in a row, Kentucky legislator Sal Santoro (a Republican) has introduced legislation calling for a 10-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax increase, as well as some increases in vehicle registration fees, the details of which I don't know.

Given that this comes on the heels of reported 20-cent-per-gallon price increases, and predictions of gas going up to $3 or even $4 a gallon by year's end, I hope this legislation does not pass.