Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
RXR Anti Trust Exemptions. Is it a problem?
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by PNWRMNM</i> <br /><br />In his post of September 19 Futuremodal claims the highway system was and is financed with user fees so motor carriers are not subsidized. <br /> <br />In footmote 230 or "Perkins/Budd' by Richard C. Overton 1982 the author states " . . . The truth apears to be that for the period 1921 through 1974, approximately two-thirds of the combined federal, state, and local expenditures for highways were met by user charges of one sort or another, while the remaining one-third was paid from gerneral tax sources. In other words, vehicular traffic by no means paid its way (the one third paid by general taxes amounted to $128 billion), nor was it accurate to imply that all ulta-modern highways were fully paid for by public expense. As is so often the case, the answer lay somewhere in between. (us DOT, Bureau of Public Roads, Highway Finance, Summary to 1965, Table HF-1 for years 1965-1967 and Table HF-11 for years 1968-74{Washington DC 1965-1974}.)" <br /> <br />Mac <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Mac, <br /> <br />You might want to contact the author and ask him why he combines federal, state, and local expenditures to facilitate his conclusion, rather than doing the professional thing and comparing federal funding to state and local funding. The two are very different, as most federal highway funding comes from user fees, while state and local highway funding uses a combination of funding methods. It is at the state and local level where the 128 billion figure arises. <br /> <br />I was very careful to differentiate between the federal and state methods of highway funding in my previous posts, and I was the one that made the point regarding the use of non-user fees at the state level for a typical state's share of highway funding. Nothing is served by clouding those differences and packaging them all into a one size fits all critique, unless one is motivated by a desire to propagandize for the sake of the railroad industry. <br /> <br />The fact remains: The federal share of highway funding comes from user fees, not subsidies from the general fund. Therefore, it is a non-sensical statement to say "highways are subsidized", and implying that such is characteristic of federal highway expeditures.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy