Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Gas Tax

States Forfeit $10 Billion Annually Thanks to Outdated Gas Taxes

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 15, 2011 | 1 Comment

The gas tax: It’s the holy grail of our screwed up transportation system. We can’t have good infrastructure because no one has the political cojones to raise it. No one has the cojones to raise it because the economy is awful. But anemic investment in our country’s infrastructure isn’t exactly good for the economy. It’s […]

As Washington Drags Its Feet, States Take the Lead on Mileage Fees

By Noel Popwell | Dec 5, 2011 | 17 Comments

Oregon, true to its history as the first state to implement a gas tax, was also the first state to consider getting rid of it — in exchange for adopting a mileage-based system for highway funding. And the Beaver state isn’t alone: A number of other states have done studies and introduced legislation to charge […]

Is Transpo Funding Fundamentally a PR Problem? Five Ex-DOT Chiefs Discuss

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 2, 2011 | 3 Comments

How can you convince Americans that transportation is important enough to invest in? That’s the question that brought together five former U.S. Transportation Secretaries this week at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. James Burnley was deputy secretary and then secretary under President Reagan. He took the position that “75 percent” of the public “gives […]

Even the Godfather of Rail~Volution Wouldn’t Raise the Gas Tax Right Now

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 19, 2011 | 4 Comments

At Rail~Volution yesterday, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) — also known as the godfather of the “rail~volution” — said even he wouldn’t raise the gas tax right now. “We should make some adjustments to a gas tax that hasn’t increased since 1993,” Blumenauer said. “Half the people think the gas tax goes up every year.” He […]

Lessons From the Former Chairman: Oberstar on Ending the Interstate Era

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 14, 2011 | 2 Comments

Streetsblog had a chance today to ask the former Democratic chief of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, about life since the 2010 election, when he lost by a hair to Republican Chip Cravaack. He said he’s spending his post-Congress time traveling to France, getting paid to say things he used to […]

Mica Won’t Say Where Transpo Funding Will Come From; LaHood Defends TE

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 14, 2011 | 2 Comments

House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica (R-FL) said this morning that getting permission from Republican leadership to find more revenues to fund the transportation bill was a “major breakthrough” but still won’t say where the money will come from. Mica told an audience at a Washington Post-sponsored forum on transportation that passing yet another extension […]

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