11/07/09
Your Gax Taxes Are Used for What? -
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Every time you put gas in you car, federal and state taxes are collected at the time of the sale; 38.4¢ to be exact. The federal government takes 18.4¢ but only returns 14.7¢ to Texas, sending the rest to other states. Really, wouldn't it make much more sense for Texas, the state with the most roads, to keep its highway tax money here? Things aren't much better for the taxes the state collects. It adds 20¢ to each gallon but only uses 13.3¢ to build and repair roads. The difference goes to schools, the DPS, Attorney General, and other agencies, and 0.6¢ is used for refunds. The refunds are for taxes collected on fuel that won't be used on public roads, like in tractors. That one makes sense. Schools and the the state agencies are important too but why are we funding them with gas taxes? We have large transportation needs and infrastructure maintenance needs that aren't being adequately funded. The federal government has dropped the ball and has failed to fund highways and transportation. The existing legislation has expired. To make matters worse, the federal government has required that TxDOT return $742 million as rescissions—that's on top of the $1.2 billion already returned. The gas tax rate has been frozen for years and with higher fuel economies with today's cars, the pool of money available for transportation keeps shrinking. And it's not a situation that looks to be improving, as shown in the second table to the left. As more energy-efficient vehicles hit the road, gas tax collections are dropping and the average collected per vehicle by 2030 is projected to be considerably lower. That formula doesn't signal a good future for roads or maintenance. Read more in TxDOT's "Dallas District Progress" monthly report for November, available here
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[The DMN Garland Blog] [Citizen's Request Center]
