Funding roads (taxes, user fees etc)

[ijmorlan]

ijmorlan: "Since the road is being paid for by everybody’s tax dollars, it’s perfectly reasonable for us to argue for efficiency improvements, even if it causes some inconvenience to those currently receiving the benefits of free roads. Beggars can’t be choosers … except when it comes to free roads, apparently."

I pay thousands of dollars in gas tax.  Tens of thousands of dollars in property, income, and consumption taxes that go towards road development.  Frankly, your continued use of "free roads" just tells me you're either disingenuous on this issue or not able to accept facts that contradict your beliefs.  Either way, I don't really see much use continuing a discussion with you.

Your point about gas tax is valid. It functions as an approximate partial pay-per-use for the road system.

But talking about property, income, and consumption taxes as if it represents you paying for your road use is incorrect. The whole point I’m making is that the general taxpayer pays for most road construction, regardless of how much they use the road network. Motorists don’t pay for the roads (except for the 407); everybody does. Since there is a large overlap between “motorists” and “everybody” it’s a bit hard to see what is really going on. But motorists do in fact get (almost) free roads. And they pay the same no matter when they choose to drive.

If we tolled all the roads, property, income, and/or consumption taxes could go down correspondingly. Or the money could be spent on other things. But suggesting that tolls are a tax grab is incorrect and nonsensical. Tolls are almost a prototypical example of a charge which is not a tax.

Again, you have no right to have the populace at large pay for enough roads for you to drive, congestion-free, at rush hour. It’s just an absurd expectation.

I think a lot of this would be much clearer if motorists were a smaller fraction of society. It would be obvious they are being paid for by everybody else. But in this time and place, the “everybody else” is actually a fairly small minority (doesn’t even include me, although I rarely use a private vehicle to get to and from work).