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Biting the tax bullet?
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– News from elsewhere covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

 

President Trump endorses twenty-five cents increase in the vehicular fuel tax hike say others.

 

While President Trump has yet to officially tweet his support of a twenty-five cent per gallon fuel tax increase, various major Washington players have stated the president is amendable to raising motor vehicle fuel tax by a quarter to help play for his just announced transportation infrastructure proposal.

 

Slick Willie also increased tax on oil
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The last president to hike the currently 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal fuel tax was when then President Bill Clinton succeeded in seeing it raised by 4.3 cents in 1993.

 

Needless to say, President Trump’s said to be OK with an 136% motor vehicle fuel tax increase has, in turn, fueled a rabid backlash from anti-tax conservatives.

 

Even so, the fact of the matter is that twenty-five years of inflation as well as a massive decline in the condition of roadways and bridges in the meanwhile could readily justify a much greater fuel tax increase so as to merely but stem further declines in the overall condition of our domestic transportation infrastructure.

 

A quarter
Image via hobbylark.com

Further, while a 25-cent hike phased in over five years would generate an additional $375 billion over the next 10 years, on a relative basis the concurrent $38 billion increase in new fuel tax revenue on an annual basis would yield but a relative few drops into an otherwise long been all but empty Federal Highway Administration fund’s gas tank.

 

Plus, as much as others are prompting all manner of creative ways to raise revenue or endeavoring to fashion creative schemes to shift the incidence of taxation onto others, the fact of the matter is that a federal fuel tax is the most effective way to both impose the cost maintaining roads and motor vehicle bridges upon those who impose wear and tear upon same as well as cost-effectively collect tax revenue.

 

Sinkhole sinks first responders
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That and if drivers are as feed up with potholes and worse as one can only reasonably assume, what better time to rise the motor vehicle fuel tax than a time when fuel prices are near historical lows per a duly inflation-adjusted basis and as new motor vehicles continue to enjoy ever-increasingly improved gas mileage as compared to previous years’ models?

Source: Trump endorses 25-cent gas tax hike, lawmakers say

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