Funding roads (taxes, user fees etc)

[jamincan]

“Alternative Facts”

… such as that roads are currently priced when they are not, except in this province for the 407 to my knowledge, and granting that if you want to count the gas tax as a (tenuous) form of road pricing I’ll grant that ad arguendum.

I think this is the main sticking point, though, and I don't think it's that tenuous. The gas tax is proportionate to use and generally only applies to vehicles that use public roadways. In that way, it is a sensible way for users of the public road system to bear the cost of roadways. Increasing the gas tax puts a greater burden on road users, decreasing it puts a greater burden on the public collectively.

There is a slight problem with this, though. Although governments devote a certain amount of that revenue to road infrastructure or similar purposes, the fact is that it is impossible to split it apart from general revenue. If the government wishes to spend $4 billion on roads, and $2 billion is available from gas taxes, than they'll spend an additional $2 billion on roads. If they want to spend $6 billion, than they will spend an additional $4 billion instead. The spending is not in any way tied to the revenue from gas taxes except that their promises on how they will spend the gas tax create a floor to how little they can spend (which would be very difficult to enforce or monitor).

This is somewhat true for public transit as well. Fares only cover a percentage of the cost of public transit, the amount of additional funding directed toward public transit is a matter of public policy as well. If ridership is very high, a municipality may just as well elect to reduce funding, leaving overall revenue for the agency stagnant. On the other hand, they may choose to invest more in it despite declining ridership and the agency may then see overall revenue increase.

I would argue that public transit is generally far more dependent on revenue from its fares than our public infrastructure is to gas taxes; however, it's really hard to properly assess the latter. A decrease in funding for road maintenance would still see roads plowed and maintenance done, however, it would be slower and the deterioration in service would only be felt after a much longer period of time. Changes to funding for public transit has far more immediate effects.

A side note: as an excise tax, gas tax revenue shouldn't only be considered a (indirect) fee for roads. It is also effectively a fee on carbon, and policy-makers should be setting rates with both purposes in mind.