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[quote user="blue streak 1"] <div class="quote-header"> </div> <blockquote class="quote"> <div class="quote-user">Sam1</div> <div class="quote-content"> What per cent of the population that does not drive does not pay taxes or only pays marginal taxes?     </div> </blockquote> <div class="quote-footer"> </div>     Whoa Sam1: Do not know what other states do but here in Georgia 1% of the State sales tax goes to roads and 2% of our local sales taxes (local any where from 4 - 7% )  go to roads and bridges.  Now since sales taxes burden to lower income persons disproportinally they are supporting the roads with more of their total income.  Note:  Sales taxes are also placed onto gasoline not a per gallon tax ( state --  7cents per gallon ) but on total amount of gasoline retail costs per last quarter. That retail cost is including the sales tax so a tax on a <a href="mailto:tax.@As">tax.</a>   [/quote] Sales taxes have a greater impact on poor people than middle class or wealthy people.  But the notion that the poor, most of whom don’t drive, are underwriting the cost of the nation’s roadways is wrong.  Most of the monies for the nation’s highways come directly or indirectly from motorists, although the revenue stream is not always clear and easy to follow. According to the Census Bureau, in 2013 14.5 per cent or 45.8 million U.S. residents lived in poverty.  Approximately 33.9 million were adults. Most of them don’t have a car because they cannot afford one. They make up a substantial portion of the population that does not drive.  A high portion of their income, which in many instances is supplemented with a variety of federal support programs, i.e. food stamps, public housing, rent vouchers, Medicaid, etc.,  goes for food, clothing, housing, transportation, and medical care.  Most food does not attract sales tax.  This is especially true if it is bought with food stamps.  In many states essential clothing items are at least periodically exempted from sales tax.  Most of the poor use public transportation, if they are mobile at all, which does not attract sales tax.  Neither does housing and medical care! Most of the sales taxes, as well as property taxes, excise taxes, income taxes, etc. are paid by the two top quintiles of income earners in America.  Most of them drive or at least own a car.  The IRS Sales Tax Tables give a good indication of the spread between sales taxes paid by lower income people and those paid by people in the top two brackets.  In Georgia a couple filing a joint return with Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $20,000 in 2012 could deduct $163 in sales taxes; those with an AGI of $60,000 to $70,000 could deduct $485, and those with an AGI of $90,000 to $100,000 could deduct $551.  In Texas the deductions would be $273, $816, and $1,019. In 2011, the latest year for validated IRS statistics, persons with Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $100,000 to $500,000 paid 74.6 per cent of the federal personal income taxes.  The top 2/10s of one per cent paid 21.1 per cent of the personal income taxes.  These are the folks who supply most of the monies to the general fund that are subsequently used for a variety of purposes, including transfers from the general fund to the highway trust fund.  The same thing happens at state, county, and local governments. For anyone who takes the time to study taxation in the U.S., it should be clear that upper income people in effect are subsidizing lower income people.  And this is true for motorists. Poor people, as well as many low income (working poor) pay few if any taxes, especially after the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is factored into the equation.  In effect they get back whatever sales, excise, etc. taxes that they might have paid.  Who covers the EITC?  The top brackets, most of whom drive.     There are a few people in the top brackets who don’t drive, i.e. the person who lives in Manhattan and never learns to drive, but they are few and far between.  They pay a variety of taxes that find their way into the general fund(s).  Some of these monies flow back to highway funds.  But they are a very small percentage of the whole.  To claim that they are a significant factor in subdizing motorists is nibbling at the edges.  They don't even move the needle. <div style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;"> </div>   <div style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;">  </div>
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