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Not so long ago, it seemed like gas at $2.33 per gallon cost an arm and a leg; now it seems like a bargain.  And not surprisingly, high prices at the pump have spawned a backlash against fuel taxes across the US—and have added fuel, so to speak, to the campaign to repeal Washington’s most recent gas tax hike. As a general matter, I think that responding to high gas...

Earlier this week I grumped that this Seattle Times editorial misled readers about the finances behind a four-cent per gallon statewide gas tax.  Among other problems, the editorial overstates how much a four-cent per gallon gas tax could accomplish.  Over 30 years, it would finance less than $2 billion in infrastructure projects, which would only begin to pay for the highway projects—such as rebuilding the Alaskan Way Viaduct (expected to...

Thomas Friedman’s usuallypitch-perfect commentary on energy and security hit some high notes yesterday, but it also went off key twice, in disappointing ways. First, the sweetest passage from his New York Times column: By doing nothing to lower U.S. oil consumption, we are financing both sides in the war on terrorism and strengthening the worst governments in the world. That is, we are financing the U.S. military with our tax...

The nominee for head of California’s DMV has, in the past, suggested a mileage-based tax on driving, as a substitute for the gas tax, as reported in the Los Angeles Times two days ago (Registration, but no subscription, required). See my op-ed on the furor that has resulted in this morning’s LAT.

Petroleum prices are cooling a bit: a barrel of crude has fallen $9 over the last few weeks, though at $46 per barrel, prices are still at a level that was unthinkable a few years ago. Nevertheless, the fall in crude will probably mean that gas prices will come down over the coming months, too.  Which makes it an opportune time to point out that, when it comes to the...

Well, obviously, people weren’t using my recommendations as a guide in their voting for the King County advisory measure on transportation funding. Incomplete results from the county elections office show the 1st place vote getter is the excise tax, my third choice 2nd place is a sales tax, my fifth choice 3rd place, and just barely behind the sales tax, is the local gas tax, my second choice Update: As...

My apologies in advance: this post will probably only interest readers who live in Cascadia’s most populous county; or who are fascinated by the details of transportation funding. The Nov. 2 ballot in King County, Washington, where I live, includes a rather peculiar item that many people have asked me about: an advisory measure on transportation. It’s advisory because it’s just a poll. It doesn’t change any laws, appropriate any...

Today’s New York Times editorialized in favor of federal gas taxes and carbon taxes that would “pull triple duty by raising revenue, reducing dependence on foreign oil and helping the environment.” I have just two quibbles: 1) Why differentiate (as the editorial does) between a gas tax and a “tax on industrial carbon emissions”? A tax on all carbon emissions would include a tax on gasoline and would yield economic...

There’s momentum in the US Congress to give residents of Washington and other states that have sales taxes but no (state) income taxes a deduction on their federal income tax, as the Seattle Post Intelligencerreports. From the perspective of tax fairness, this change is a good idea. It corrects one of the flaws of the sales tax. Residents of no-state-income-tax states currently pay more federal income tax than their counterparts...

Most northwesterners believe that governments pay for roadwork from gas tax revenue. And they’re right about the federal and state/provincial level. But they’re wrong about city and county road spending. That comes out of property and sales taxes. Regionwide, we spend several hundred million local, general-fund dollars a year on the infrastructure for cars and trucks. (Read details here.) A citizen panel in Seattle has studied the city’s roads and...