When Governor Bob McDonnell signs HB 2313 into law, Virginia will become the first state to completely eliminate the retail fuel gas tax. As revenues from per-gallon fuel taxes continue to drop, states are searching for ways to bolster their transportation revenues.
sales tax
An environmentalist’s call to curb the federal role in transportation
In the post-Interstate-building era, questions about the role of the federal government in funding surface transportation have become more common. Most of these arguments have come from conservatives. A new call for eliminating the federal role comes from a different perspective, though—a green one.
Virginia governor proposes scrapping gas tax, raising sales tax to fund transportation
Most discussion of possible solutions to the problem of stagnant gas tax revenues has focused on increasing user fees in some way – e.g., by raising fuel taxes, adding tolls, and/or adding VMT-based fees. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s proposal to eliminate the gas tax and pay for transportation with an increased sales tax, thereby abandoning the decades-old concept of funding transportation with user fees, seems to have united both the left and right in opposition.
Kansas City’s streetcar silver bullet?
Later this month, 730 residents of a special taxing district in downtown Kansas City will vote on a plan to tax themselves and area shoppers to pay the construction and operating costs for a 2-mile streetcar circulator. So far, the project has been largely free of opposition, a major accomplishment for the project’s promoters.
Kansas City’s streetcar silver bullet?
Later this month, 730 residents of a special taxing district in downtown Kansas City will vote on a plan to tax themselves and area shoppers to pay the construction and operating costs for a 2-mile streetcar circulator. So far, the project has been largely free of opposition, a major accomplishment for the project’s promoters.
“30/10″ Plan: The right track for transportation
According to Charles Chieppo of the Harvard Kennedy School, Los Angeles County appears eager to learn from mistakes made in transportation funding over the last twenty years — such as the Boston “Big Dig” highway …