Mary Peters was Bush’s Transportation Secretary, so when she says it’s “game over” for gas taxes her words carry as much weight as you might expect. And her proposal (of course) is toll roads:
Peters, who served during President George W. Bush’s second term, was the conference’s keynote speaker. A Republican who also headed the state transportation department in her home state of Arizona, she has been an advocate for leasing public roads to private companies and charging tolls to generate cash for large highway projects.
Toll roads are a simple way to raise money by user-fees, which is why they’ve been a libertarian cause since practically forever. Another proposal is a mileage tax — essentially, government billing you for the miles you drive as opposed to the gallons you burn. Minnesota is tinkering with a mileage tax, and Oregon has already had a very successful experiment with one. But the president recently rejected the idea of replacing the gas tax that way, despite the recommendation of a federal commission.
Neither of these options — tolls and mileage tax collection — makes as much sense as simply raising the federal gas tax. First, because the architecture of the tax is built into the system of sale already: there’s no need to erect toll booths, or argue margins of profit with a contractor, or install chips in our cars. X gallons times Y cents equals Z taxes, paid direct from the consumer, and the best part is that we’re all already doing it.
Consumers already involve efficiency in their choice of vehicles, as mileage ratings are displayed on the windows in the sale lot. Efficiency standards have also been enforced on the industry. The net effect has been more efficient cars in America — which is why gas tax revenues are down. American consumers are reacting to the current wave of high gasoline prices by buying less gas, taking fewer trips, and finding alternatives to driving alone.
That’s exactly what we need if we are ever to beat America’s oil addiction.
Prices are how markets signal us to change habits and pursue efficiency. The price of gas is hardly determined by the federal tax: crumbling oil infrastructure, disasters, conflicts, and speculation play a superior role in the price of a gallon. Nevertheless, America faces an enormous deficit of infrastructure repair and maintenance. Bridges and roads and rails — the backbone of American civilization — are crumbling like Iraqi pipelines.
So in order to avoid disaster, it’s better to just raise the stupid gas taxes. On a global scale, Americans actually manage to pay a cheap price for gas. We can either pay the difference now, or pay it later, but we might as well pay at the pump. Putting it off just guarantees we’ll be even more screwed when gasoline is $5 a gallon on its own.
Current highs — brought on by Mississippi River floods — will not last, but gasoline will never stop getting more expensive because we are past global peak oil production. The laws of supply and demand haven’t been repealed:
