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<p>[quote user="cx500"]</p> <p> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> <strong>Sam1:</strong></div> <div></div> <p>Roads do not pay for themselves.  The users pay for them through fuel taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, fees, and property taxes.  Unfortunately, because of the deceptive way the revenues are collected, most motorists don't see the full cost of building and maintaining the country's roads at the pump.  But they pay for them.</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <p> </p> </blockquote> </p> <p>Excuse me, but is not using property taxes to pay for roads an outright subsidy?  Many take advantage of the subsidy to drive to work.  That subsidy has become so widely accepted that very few recognize it for what it is.  The deception has worked, and those who might prefer their property tax to used for better (or any) public transportation service are mocked.  The money goes to add lanes or build a new interchange instead.</p> <p>Very little if any fuel taxes filter back to help maintain local roads.  And the sales taxes on vehicle purchases and maintenance won't add up to very much either.  Using sales tax on my shoes to repave the local main street is subsidizing a competing mode of transportation.</p> <p>John [/quote]</p> <p>Who pays the property taxes?  In the United States the nearly 114 million licensed drivers pay them irrespective of whether they own property or rent.  The only motorists who do not pay property taxes, a portion of which are used to build and maintain local streets and county roads, are those who live in public housing.  And not many motorists in Texas reside in public housing, although there are some.</p> <p>The problem with funding local streets and county roads through the property tax, as I have said, is it hides the true cost of driving.  For this reason, I would like to see the politicians pass the cost of local streets and county roads through to motorists at the pump, with a corresponding reduction in property taxes.  It is not likely to happen.</p> <p>In Texas' major cities, the legislature has authorized the collection of a dedicated sales tax to fund public transit.  These taxes are collected from everyone, most of whom drive and very few who use public transit.  In addition, two cents of the of the federal fuel tax is transferred to the Mass Transit Administration, which flows the funds to a variety of mass or public transit projects around the nation.  In this manner, motorists are subsidizing public transit and not the other way around.  </p>
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