Should state take responsible to maintain the road, not rely on sales tax?
By kingparker
@kingparker (9673)
United States
February 22, 2012 9:06pm CST
So, I heard that most states rely on gasoline sales to maintain the road we driving daily. Like the federal gas tax and the state gas tax, which is used to maintain the road condition. What if the gas price is going up too high, and people are starting to converting their gasoline motor vehicle to something like electric cars, or other form of energy burning vehicles to reduce the gas costs. Would that gas tax not enough to help upkeep the road condition? I heard other states usually charge more on the tag fee every year to help keep up the good condition of the roads, would this be a good idea rather than rely on gasoline sales tax?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@ashwinanand (582)
• India
26 Dec 12
Hi..I don't know about the tax that you had mentioned but as far as i know in my place people wont change over to the electric version of cars and the government here collect tax in forms of rad tax and other like property etc from which they take money for the maintenance work.They also plan a budget where they allot cash for the development and maintenance that is used for the work.Some roads are owned by some private firms on contract basis.They charge the user when they make trips using the road.And more over here the roads are badly maintained so the question never arises.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
24 Feb 12
Well I think it breaks down further than you infer. As cities are responsible for their own roads, state highways are thecounty responsibility, and the interstate is Federal I believe. Because I know I don't call the state to report the pothole on my road.
My hubby has invested in another moped to drive to work as it gets over 70mi to the gallon and that's about all he drives to work.
But you are right eventually there will be a breaking point where people will cut back on their traveling even further causing the gas to decrease in price but also causes the state and federal government to loose money. Though it would be nice if oil companies would stop raking us further and further over the coals, while we have to make sacrafices they continue to roll in exhorbant profits.
@lampar (7584)
• United States
23 Feb 12
The state rely on revenue from a few sources for the maintainence of their highways and roads, when they are having shortfall in their budget, they usually raise the tax rate on the existing tax sources or add in another tax code to get more funding. State has it own way to collect enough revenue for their road no matter how thing go. 
