How should roads be financed?

[taterguy]

Tolls?

Gasoline taxes?

Funds from general revenue?

Bonds? BTW, does anyone really understand what a bond is?

Some combination of all the above?

Who cares? As long as there's an Olive Garden on every corner.

[madinmaryland]

1. Bonds?? Isn't he the Steroid Guy??

:shrug:

[Ikonoklast]

2. Tax on bicycles.

And never let them use any other mode of tranportation for anything, ever.

Get the most out of those suckers.

[taterguy]

3. How much money would that raise?

I guess it depends on the tax.

Would it just apply to sales of new bikes?

If so, wouldn't people just keep old bikes on the road forever?

[Ikonoklast]

7. How much you got?

Send in all of that, and borrow some more.

We'll let you know when it's enough.


Oh, and you have to buy a new bike every month, as they get unsafe really quickly.

[taterguy]

11. About enough to pay for 1/1,000,000 of a highway bridge

We're gonna need a lot more cyclists

[mwooldri]

4. Road tax & Gas Tax combined.

The vehicle would be taxed yearly as part of license tag renewal fees - and it would be based on emissions - higher emissions, more tax. The gas tax makes it more equitable because those who use more gas use the road more and should pay more for its upkeep.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. I understand what a bond is...

and they have been an effective way of financing public works projects for decades, not to mention funding for innumerable federal, corporate and private uses.

[no name no slogan]

6. Big projects (like new roads) are typically paid for with bonds

The gov't sells the bonds to pay for big capital projects, like roads, buildings, etc. Typically they're 30-year bonds as the expense for these big projects is way more than can be collected in taxes.

Yearly maintenance is paid for with taxes-- typically from taxes on trucking companies, gas taxes, car licensing taxes, and general revenue funds.

It's actually quite complicated if you look at it.

/ works for state government.

[MajorChode]

15. Not so much around here

When developers develop new land (housing, commercial, industrial), they must put money in a trust that goes to build or expand roads. If the money is not spent within a certain time period, it goes back to the developers. It's not a bad system.

[WinkyDink]

8. By American Idol. What? Not the all-purpose answer?

[OmahaBlueDog]

9. I favor gas tax, but toll is getting increasingly easy to collect

They put a transponder in you vehicle and the tolls go to a credit or debit account.

So to recap, 33% of road funding should come from gas tax, 33% from toll, and the balance should be an automatic surcharge added to your Olive Garden (or other Darden restaurant, such as Bahama Breeze or Red Lobster) bill. 1% should come from really slow drivers who get in my way.

[Deja Q]

10. Prostitution...

Or see "American Idol" above...

[Texasgal]

12. ...

:P

[taterguy]

13. You trying to kill my fucking thread?

Do you have any idea who you're fucking with?

[applegrove]

14. Just remember it is the big trucks that tear up the highways. So somehow

corporations need to pay. Don't let them get away with not paying taxes.

[Mopar151]

16. Crappy drainage

poor maintainence, and an excessive use of ice melters all play a big part.
We all do our parts in beating the roads into rubble.

[LostInAnomie]

17. Step 1: Make weed legal

Step 2: Tax weed

Step 3: Find something to spend all the surplus weed money on.

[csziggy]

18. Tax tires - they are rated for the weight of the vehicle and wear depending on the miles driven n/t

[flvegan]

19. End a couple wars. Let's spend money over here on OUR infrastructure

rather than paying to rebuild shit we blew up.

[Ptah]

20. Within the appropriate framework