By all accounts, we’re just not spending enough on highways in Colorado. Shortly after taking office, Gov. Bill Ritter appointed a blue ribbon panel to examine our transportation, and the panel said the state needs to spend an extra $500 million a year just to maintain current roads.
Most road funding comes from a state gasoline tax of 22 cents per gallon, a state diesel-fuel tax of 20.5 cents, and whatever pork our congressional delegation can hustle from the federal excise taxes of 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel.
Among the dumber recent proposals (these from the John McCain and Hillary Clinton campaigns) is temporary “Gas Tax Relief,” with Congress suspending federal fuel taxes from Memorial Day to Labor Day, thus saving Americans about $6.8 billion.
When America’s roads and bridges are deteriorating, is it a good idea to cut off a source of funding?
Not to worry; McCain says the shortfall can be made up from general budget revenues, while Clinton says we can tax the oil companies. But as taxes go, fuel taxes are reasonably fair. In general, those who benefit the most are those who drive the most, and they’re the ones who pay the most.
Taxing everybody, as McCain proposes, is unfair to the 30 percent of Americans who do not drive because they are too young, too old, or too sensible. Taxing oil companies effectively means taxing all their products, many of which (like chemicals to make plastic and fertilizer) have nothing to do with highways.
So the sensible solution in Colorado would be to increase the gas tax. It hasn’t gone up since 1991, while prices of road material — concrete, steel, asphalt — have more than doubled. Colorado’s population has grown, and the number of “vehicle miles traveled” has grown faster than the population.
However, an increase in fuel taxes would require a public vote, thanks to TABOR. There might be a way to spin this. In 1991, gasoline was about $1.25 a gallon at the pump, so our state tax of 22 cents was 17.6 percent of the total price.
Gasoline is about $3.50 today (or $3.28 without state tax). The price would be about $4 a gallon if the state tax was still 17.6 percent of the pump price. Our highway funds would be flush, and you could argue that “the effective gasoline tax rate” has remained stable.
To avoid making that argument, the legislature is pondering an increase in vehicle registration fees, which would not require a public vote. This is not nearly as fair as the gas tax, since it has no connection with how much you use the roads. A car that’s in your garage except for 20-mile Sunday drives gets taxed as much as one of the same model and year that commutes daily from Vail to Denver and back.
Alas, there are millions of Americans who dodge their civic duty to support highways and the petroleum industry. Bicycles, for instance, often use paved public roads without paying a nickel of gas tax. As for bike trails, they are often largely funded from the federal fuel taxes under the pork-laden Transportation Equity Act.
Public sidewalks, which encourage pedestrian free-loaders and tax-avoiding baby strollers, are financed (at least in Salida) by property owners, rather than the people who use them. Thus, every time I walk or bicycle to the post office rather than drive, I deprive the state of sorely needed funds.
Granted, the public-spirited land developers of Colorado have done their best to make sure everyone pays fuel taxes by driving a lot, but they can’t do it all by themselves. It’s time to look at the big picture, and start taxing shoes, strollers and bicycles, lest even more people start evading their obligation to put more money into Colorado roads.
Ed Quillen (ed@cozine.com) is a freelance writer, history buff, publisher of Colorado Central Magazine in Salida and frequent contributor to The Post.
