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Re: Gas Tax has nothing whatsoeverr to do with the CHSRA fiasco........
Author: BOB2
Date: 11-16-2017 - 07:13
As I've said, we'd get many comments from folks.....this one is conflating the gas tax increase to somehow being related to CHSRA's particular problems and issues.
The gas tax was raised 12 cents a gallon, for the first time in 25 years in CA, to pay for the freeways, bridges, and local streets that are falling apart under us. It is costing the average driver about 10 dollars a month. This money is not being spent on CAHSRA, but about 10% can be spent on congestion "relief", including some for transit and rail, with a small portion going to IC rail and commuter rail agencies. One half of the 90% for roads is going to the cities and counties for the backlog of maintenance on bridges, streets, and roads, and the other half is going to the backlog of state highways and freeway maintenance and safety projects.
The I-210 "maintenance" project from Pasadena to the 118 is an excellent example of just how bad the state of "good repair" on our roads is. This project was originally funded with some stimulus funds, to catch up on the potholes and drainage issues folks had started to notice. This road, when built in the late 60's and early 70's did not account for seasonal springs in that upland through La Canada, La Crescenta, and Sunland, and leaks would develop during rainy seasons, undermining the roadway, which the now up to 60% heavier trucks would break up, resulting in potholes of a size that had caused several major accidents.
When Caltrans began the "repairs" on this segment of the 210, they discovered that the damage was much worse than expected, and much more than the "stimulus" funds would pay for. They have now spent an extra three years rebuilding the entire roadway, repouring new pavement, much thicker, over a better web of rebar over a new sub bed, with completely new drainage, which had to be done on a live operating freeway, at a cost much higher than original estimates. The 210 lesson is a microcosm of what has happened to an aging freeway system, not built for these heavier trucks, and that is starting to really show the damage.
Many of the freeways are now my age or even much older, and like me they need a complete upgrade (pacemaker, liver transplant, Viagra....) in order to continue to function without in some cases like the bridges literally falling down, by wear or in an earthquake. All of those bridge projects on 1-10 and I-40 were stimulus funded projects to do that. Now, the "free manna" from Washington, is used up, and the job was barely even scratched, the states (not just CA) have had to raise gas taxes, many like CA had not done so it 20 to 30 years, to pay for these repairs.
The legislature set the tax to increase when the winter blend reduced gas prices on November 1, which usually drops the price of gas about 6 to 10 cents a gallon. When the new tax went on, many refiners and gas stations actually raised prices by more than the tax increase, to do some good old fashioned price gouging of their customers, using the tax as an excuse. Prices have actually started dropping again, and after Christmas, most of this price increase in excess of the new tax will disappear, based on the history of gasoline price cycles. This will come from competition, especially from imported gasoline from Asia, which now comes in regularly when CA's three refiners who control nearly 90% of production, collude to raise consumer prices.
The one folks really won't like is the increase in the registration fees, since that hits you all at once. And, my neighbor will finally begin to pay 100 dollars a year for his Leaf, as they are finally making EV's pay some minimal road use fee, other than the excise tax on tires.
The problem with waiting every 25 years to raise the gas tax is 1) that you need to raise it much more to make up for inflation, 2) the roads were in so much worse shape from delay an neglect of maintenance, 3)people get hit with a much bigger increase and usually scream like stuck pigs (since they've come to believe that life does not entitle them to a "free ride") and 4)demagogue's like Ken and John get to rant and rave on talk radio about how the evil politicians are depriving us of our "right" to a "free ride" in life, by actually making us pay for these things we use, and demanding its immediate repeal......
This gas tax is actually a pretty small percentage increase in the price of gas.
Those of us old enough to remember 18 cent regular, have probably forgotten that that evil "communist" oppressor of our distant childhood, Dwight David Eisenhower, raised the price of gasoline by 33% with the Federal gasoline tax that originally paid to build the interstates.
One definite way to reduce the impact of this increase in the gas tax on ourselves, is to not drive as much, or even at all. Then you won't have to pay anything back to society for the cost to maintain the roads that you are no longer using, nor benefitting from.
And, I know that none of this explanation will have the least impact at all upon on any of the usual coterie of trolls and whiners, who will now likely chime in to call me names, or throw their feces around their cages, in a state of rage. It's for the rest of you.....
The gas tax was raised 12 cents a gallon, for the first time in 25 years in CA, to pay for the freeways, bridges, and local streets that are falling apart under us. It is costing the average driver about 10 dollars a month. This money is not being spent on CAHSRA, but about 10% can be spent on congestion "relief", including some for transit and rail, with a small portion going to IC rail and commuter rail agencies. One half of the 90% for roads is going to the cities and counties for the backlog of maintenance on bridges, streets, and roads, and the other half is going to the backlog of state highways and freeway maintenance and safety projects.
The I-210 "maintenance" project from Pasadena to the 118 is an excellent example of just how bad the state of "good repair" on our roads is. This project was originally funded with some stimulus funds, to catch up on the potholes and drainage issues folks had started to notice. This road, when built in the late 60's and early 70's did not account for seasonal springs in that upland through La Canada, La Crescenta, and Sunland, and leaks would develop during rainy seasons, undermining the roadway, which the now up to 60% heavier trucks would break up, resulting in potholes of a size that had caused several major accidents.
When Caltrans began the "repairs" on this segment of the 210, they discovered that the damage was much worse than expected, and much more than the "stimulus" funds would pay for. They have now spent an extra three years rebuilding the entire roadway, repouring new pavement, much thicker, over a better web of rebar over a new sub bed, with completely new drainage, which had to be done on a live operating freeway, at a cost much higher than original estimates. The 210 lesson is a microcosm of what has happened to an aging freeway system, not built for these heavier trucks, and that is starting to really show the damage.
Many of the freeways are now my age or even much older, and like me they need a complete upgrade (pacemaker, liver transplant, Viagra....) in order to continue to function without in some cases like the bridges literally falling down, by wear or in an earthquake. All of those bridge projects on 1-10 and I-40 were stimulus funded projects to do that. Now, the "free manna" from Washington, is used up, and the job was barely even scratched, the states (not just CA) have had to raise gas taxes, many like CA had not done so it 20 to 30 years, to pay for these repairs.
The legislature set the tax to increase when the winter blend reduced gas prices on November 1, which usually drops the price of gas about 6 to 10 cents a gallon. When the new tax went on, many refiners and gas stations actually raised prices by more than the tax increase, to do some good old fashioned price gouging of their customers, using the tax as an excuse. Prices have actually started dropping again, and after Christmas, most of this price increase in excess of the new tax will disappear, based on the history of gasoline price cycles. This will come from competition, especially from imported gasoline from Asia, which now comes in regularly when CA's three refiners who control nearly 90% of production, collude to raise consumer prices.
The one folks really won't like is the increase in the registration fees, since that hits you all at once. And, my neighbor will finally begin to pay 100 dollars a year for his Leaf, as they are finally making EV's pay some minimal road use fee, other than the excise tax on tires.
The problem with waiting every 25 years to raise the gas tax is 1) that you need to raise it much more to make up for inflation, 2) the roads were in so much worse shape from delay an neglect of maintenance, 3)people get hit with a much bigger increase and usually scream like stuck pigs (since they've come to believe that life does not entitle them to a "free ride") and 4)demagogue's like Ken and John get to rant and rave on talk radio about how the evil politicians are depriving us of our "right" to a "free ride" in life, by actually making us pay for these things we use, and demanding its immediate repeal......
This gas tax is actually a pretty small percentage increase in the price of gas.
Those of us old enough to remember 18 cent regular, have probably forgotten that that evil "communist" oppressor of our distant childhood, Dwight David Eisenhower, raised the price of gasoline by 33% with the Federal gasoline tax that originally paid to build the interstates.
One definite way to reduce the impact of this increase in the gas tax on ourselves, is to not drive as much, or even at all. Then you won't have to pay anything back to society for the cost to maintain the roads that you are no longer using, nor benefitting from.
And, I know that none of this explanation will have the least impact at all upon on any of the usual coterie of trolls and whiners, who will now likely chime in to call me names, or throw their feces around their cages, in a state of rage. It's for the rest of you.....
