07-13-2017, 07:31 AM
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to view sales tax on gasoline as some kind of a user fee to pay for roads. The gas tax is intended to be something like that, but HST applies on everything- I can't think why, in the specific case of gasoline used for driving, it would go to anywhere besides general revenue.
As for the question of whether money not spent on gas or cars would instead be spent on something else, some of it would indeed be saved or invested- but, in Ontario lately, not much. Households' savings rates are not particularly high right now. The majority of it would be used for consumption.
I can understand that, for someone who drives, it's not very important whether the costs of that come from charges to him as a motorist, or taxes paid by him as a taxpayer. And, given that most Ontarians drive, that may well be good enough. If you're not a driver, though, or you're a light user of the roads, you're probably subsidizing drivers or more-frequent drivers.
That probably isn't a big problem (how much are the subsidies likely to be, really? is anyone living in poverty because of all the taxes he pays to support other people's driving habits?). But it isn't efficient, and if we ever wanted to curb driving in any real way, the way the costs are paid would need to change. We don't, though: most people are happy with the current system, there's no political will to make driving more expensive for drivers.
As for the question of whether money not spent on gas or cars would instead be spent on something else, some of it would indeed be saved or invested- but, in Ontario lately, not much. Households' savings rates are not particularly high right now. The majority of it would be used for consumption.
I can understand that, for someone who drives, it's not very important whether the costs of that come from charges to him as a motorist, or taxes paid by him as a taxpayer. And, given that most Ontarians drive, that may well be good enough. If you're not a driver, though, or you're a light user of the roads, you're probably subsidizing drivers or more-frequent drivers.
That probably isn't a big problem (how much are the subsidies likely to be, really? is anyone living in poverty because of all the taxes he pays to support other people's driving habits?). But it isn't efficient, and if we ever wanted to curb driving in any real way, the way the costs are paid would need to change. We don't, though: most people are happy with the current system, there's no political will to make driving more expensive for drivers.