[CopperTop]

Politicians are never happy. First they try to force the American consumer to buy fuel efficient vehicles, then they complain about the drop in revenue from gas taxes because people are using less fuel.

Here's an idea that may be coming to a state near you. This idea was already floated in NC, in 2008, but was defeated.

From the June 25, 2012 Jacksonville (FL) Business Journal ...

The state of Florida is considering replacements for the gas tax as prices at the pump drop and drivers switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles, CF News 13 reports.

The Sunshine State is concerned about the impact of those trends on its dwindling Transportation Trust Fund, which acquires money from the tax paid per gallon of gas and then uses it to pay for highway infrastructure improvements.

One of the options the state is considering is a mileage-based user fee, where the more you drive, the more you pay, requiring drivers reporting their mileage when they renew their tags.

The state will continue to look for more creative ways to keep money flowing into the Transportation Trust Fund, but said it could take five years before any substantial changes are made.​

Politicians really need to look up the definition of unintended consequences.


Copper

 

[mrblanche]

It's basically how we truckers pay our fuel taxes. The worst is Oregon; effectively 91 cents per gallon on my truck.

 

[69/84]

...Think Before You Vote...We can make a Change...
Get rid of them all :beer:

 

[LOCKJAW]

What riles me is they are forcing us to buy ethanol, albeit a small percentage, a fuel that requires almost twice as much in volume to perform reasonably on par with gasoline. That is the paradox.highly efficient technology burning inefficient fuel. Doesn't make sense..but it sure does make great politics and fortunes for some.
I am waiting to see what the DofE will do now that the severe drought conditions will cause corn prices to soar. Corn is used in almost all processed foods. Also as a sweetener. Recently as a motor fuel.
Farmers need corn for their cattle, starving children around the world need corn to survive. Considering all the need it seems dumb and almost immoral to turn food into motorfuel when we really don't need to. We have plenty of oil under our feet.
This is a classic case of governmental interference run amok.

Sorry to hijack your thread. This us a serious matter and we have nitwirs making the d:dontknow:ecisions.

 

[steelybill]

I never complained about gas taxes when it was used to keep roads in decent shape, but I get riled when I have to pay road tax on the fuel at the marinas for my boat.
Some states & cities have a good imagination on how to extract a few more bucks from us :smileyb:
A city near me requires cats to have a license, just like a dog license. Never heard of that before, but I don't get around much.....

 

[CopperTop]

What riles me is they are forcing us to buy ethanol, albeit a small percentage, a fuel that requires almost twice as much in volume to perform reasonably on par with gasoline. That is the paradox.highly efficient technology burning inefficient fuel. Doesn't make sense..but it sure does make great politics and fortunes for some.
I am waiting to see what the DofE will do now that the severe drought conditions will cause corn prices to soar. Corn is used in almost all processed foods. Also as a sweetener. Recently as a motor fuel.
Farmers need corn for their cattle, starving children around the world need corn to survive. Considering all the need it seems dumb and almost immoral to turn food into motorfuel when we really don't need to. We have plenty of oil under our feet.
This is a classic case of governmental interference run amok.

Sorry to hijack your thread. This us a serious matter and we have nitwirs making the d:dontknow:ecisions.

No apologies necessary ... that's what the thread is for ... discussion of the issues.

If Florida is like North Carolina, the reason they are running out of money in the highway fund is because the bone-heads at the capitol keep robbing the money to pay for other things ... things that are unrelated to the highways and transportation.


Copper

 

[mrblanche]

My guess is that the requirement for ethanol is going to die, for various reasons. One reason is that the tax supplement on it is dead. Another is that the corn harvest this year is going to be short.

Pure ethanol has about 70% of the BTU's of gasoline. That means that a gallon of E10 would have about 97% of the BTU's of pure gasoline (90% for the gas, plus 70% of 10% ethanol). On a car getting 20 mpg, 3% would be .6 mpg, or 19.3 mpg total. That is almost too little to measure, except in a long-term test.

To make it even more complicated, engines designed to run on E85 can be tuned to return excellent power and/or mpg, since ethanol has an octane of about 115. In fact, a lot of the newest, hottest hot rods are being built to use E85, since it can produce such awesome power (due to a lack of detonation under supercharging and big advances).

 

[LOCKJAW]

My contention is that the gov't should let the marketplace control the use of ethanol rather than manipulate the food and fuel markets through subsidies and favoritism. The main reason gor going to ethanol was to help relieve our need for imported oil. We have heard that bs for thirty some years.The addition of ethanol has done nothing to solve our demand problems.

 

[Mike Zeigler]

Post number three says it all, VOTE, this crap started at the top and only rolls downhill to us peons,oke:

I believe this great country needs to go a different way from where it has been headed:banghead: the last few years.

:usa:

Just my 2 cents,Mike

 

[ALAsh]

Man don't get me started !!!

Anyone who is paying any attention should readily see the current "Leadership" is taking us down the part toward Socialism.

The good news... We can still shout "USA", "USA" at Olympic events.
The bad news.... It may stand for Union of Socialist Affiliates if people don't get off their A_ _'s and vote.

If I didn't build my business over the years...(The government did !!) why were those years of 60-70 hour weeks neccessary...........:let_it_all_out:

Hope this thread is not removed.... May be one of the most important threads posted !!!

 

[LOCKJAW]

I operated my lock & safe service business for more than 35 years without so much as a phone call from the gov't.
I agree with previous post. This election may very well be the last chance to save the America I grew up in.

 

[Bobby78]

I know we're not to supposed to get into political discussions, but here goes.
It's all the same BS on many different fronts. Here in NYC, our mayor "decided" that the homeowners in this city of 8 million should not have property taxes that are significantly less than the more affluent suburbs. So they raised assessments and property taxes went up by 20% and continue to increase each year. What's the mayor's reasoning? He says it's still cheaper than the suburbs and most people will stay and pay because they can't afford to leave! What balls! Most of this is due to the state doing away with NYC's commuter tax on those who earn here, use our services everyday and spend most of their income elsewhere. You would think he'd get voted out, right? Wrong! We had term limits in effect that would limit him to 2 four year terms. He vetoed the law and got elected for a third term!
They put water meters in every home, business, apartment house, etc. So what happened? People realized they were paying too much for what they thought should be free. So leaks got fixed, lawns didn't get watered, people went to the $5 car wash instead of doing themselves. Result? City/State can't make enough money on water to cover the maintenance costs of the system. So what do they do? Raise the water bill 18% every other year! The logic is they need 'X" amount of money to run the system so they raise rates to achieve the target.
Then the MTA(metropolitan transportation authority) which oversees the commuter railroads, subway/bus system and bridges and tunnels was losing money. So what do they do? Add a surcharge to every vehicle registration. We already had a $15/yr charge to drive on the pot holed riddled streets. So another $30 or so on top of that for the MTA. Even on antique registrations that are only to be used for parades/exhibitions. Oh yeah and they raised all the fares and tolls too!
As far as corn and ethanol, I remember seeing a documentary on TV that said this was a different non- edible corn grown specifically for ethanol production. That's probably BS too. It also showed the nasty byproducts and their effects on the enviroment. With gas at $3.98-$4.35 + per gallon people here are driving less. So the new plan is to raise the city gas tax to recover monies lost from consumers conserving gas.
Don't we all wish we run our income the same?

 

[LOCKJAW]

That is the problem. Government seeks to serve and grow itself rather than the folks.

I know I am going to get spanked for this..but. I need to get this off my chest.
Our leader wants to put 300,000 teachers back to work using borrowed funds, of course. At the same time there are 5000 people pushing paper around and discussing what we need to do @ the DEE. Fiscal budget for 2012 for us DEE is a whopping $77 billion! !
That wasted money could pay for all the teachers! $77,000,000,000 education funds not directly benefitting the kids!
I promise I am finished. Thanks.

 

[Bobby78]

Well James we might as well raise idiots. The gov't lets most of the jobs leave this country anyway. What do you need an education for? To pull stick ups or cash welfare checks?

 

[BAS-Sr]

I never complained about gas taxes when it was used to keep roads in decent shape, but I get riled when I have to pay road tax on the fuel at the marinas for my boat.
Some states & cities have a good imagination on how to extract a few more bucks from us :smileyb:
A city near me requires cats to have a license, just like a dog license. Never heard of that before, but I don't get around much.....

Steely (and all),

I don't want to get dragged inot the political discussion as I am very vocal about what to do with "politicians" and if I use some of those words here, I will most likely be hauled off by Homeland Security!

Just a quick comment about gas taxes and how they do it here in NJ.

The gas tax gets puts into the "General Fund" and the politicians used the $8.8 billion there for other than road maintenance, now they want us, the tax payers to replace that $$ by increasing the gas tax.

BOHICA at its best!

and for those of you wondering what BOHICA is:

Bend Over Here It Comes Again

 

[elcaminothepathway]

LOCKJAW said it earlier just wait till harvest comes. Corn here is not doing well at all. Some fields have already been plowed in because there is no chance. People are already sending there cattle to market a month a head of schedule because they have no hay to feed them and at a summer starting price of 150 a bale and a heard of 50 eating a bale a day, and corn feed will sky rocket after harvest. You are not just talking about a rise in gas you are talking about beef chicken and so many other foods already mentioned will go up. It takes 4 years to rebuild a heard of cattle or hogs and years for farmers to recover financially from the loss of crops they have dealt with this year.

On the original note I already pay a gas tax to keep my roads up a long with registration. A road tax will just make it harder. I have been putting a 1,000 miles a week on my camino since June along with 300 in a normal commute during winter. That is a tax I couldn't afford to pay.

 

[airbrushing]

You all gotta check out, read and watch videos and documents at
infowars.com
I am on there every day.oke:

 

[LOCKJAW]

The redistribution of the personal wealth of the masses has been going on for some time. The only way to reverse the trend is to balance a federal budget by whittling away at the enormous list of agencies and commissions. Many are worthy, many are meaningless unnecesary jobs created solely to return political favors. I know I said I would shut up but it is vital that people tune in and drop in.( not drop out like the late 60's)
In advance of being admonished about polspeak on this wonderful forum, as a US Marine I will now drop down and give Ken 20 regulation pushups as penance.:secret:

 

[mrblanche]

The good news... We can still shout "USA", "USA" at Olympic events.

Actually, we can't. Or shouldn't, says Salon.

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/01/dont_chant_u_s_a/

 

[LOCKJAW]

"Salon" is more to the left than a NASCAR track. Great for training puppies!