Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Gas Tax

LaHood to Congress: It’s Time to Talk About a Gas Tax Increase

By Elana Schor | Nov 30, 2009 | 8 Comments

As Congress maneuvers to end the political impasse over the next long-term national transportation bill, lawmakers are going to have to debate an increase in the federal gas tax, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (Photo: Getty Images) In his remarks at a Fort Worth transportation meeting, first reported by the […]

Think Roads Pay for Themselves? Think Again

By Elana Schor | Nov 24, 2009 | 12 Comments

The myth that U.S. roads “pay for themselves” thanks to user fees is a subject that’s likely familiar to many Streetsblog readers — but just how much of the nation’s highway funding is provided by charging drivers? The answer may surprise even active critics of the current asphalt-centric transportation system. Between 1982 and 2007, the […]

GOPers Re-Name the Climate Bill Again: Now It’s a ‘Gas Tax’!

By Elana Schor | Oct 21, 2009 | 5 Comments

Seven months after first trying to re-brand congressional climate change legislation as an "energy tax," Senate Republicans were back at it today with a new report and op-ed that attempts to expose the climate bill as a "$3.6 trillion gas tax." Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) (Photo: GOP Lounge) Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and […]

Obama Ally Breaks With White House on Timing of New Transport Bill

By Elana Schor | Oct 14, 2009 | 2 Comments

Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), the No. 2 Democratic leader in the upper chamber of Congress and a close ally of the president, broke with the White House Monday and called for a new long-term transportation bill to pass by early next year — not after the Obama administration’s preferred 18-month delay. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin […]

Do Highway Users Pay for the Highway System? Not Even Close.

By Ryan Avent | Sep 17, 2009 | 30 Comments

We tend to have a few good laughs when Randal O’Toole fires up his Cato computer and weighs in on transportation issues. It’s hard to take seriously a man who thinks that having the government tax people to build something which it then gives away for free is the libertarian ideal. Do federal gas taxes […]

Lawmakers Pitch Transport Funding Ideas, From VMT to Freight Taxes

By Elana Schor | Jul 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

Leaders of the House transportation committee, doggedly pursuing a six-year, $450 billion infrastructure bill this year, pressed their case this morning before Ways and Means Committee colleagues who must approve a new funding mechanism for their massive legislation. On transport funding, a question looms: Whither Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY)? (Photo: BusinessWeek) […]

Show More Stories