Congestion pricing - what are your thoughts

[Superman]

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
I think you're missing my point. I wouldn't have a problem in the world with this if it was 100% funded by end-users, like a toll road is. My gripe with it is that gubmint bureaucrats are going to continue to collect all the taxes they do today, all the vehicle registration charges they do today, all the gasoline taxes (supposedly for road upkeep) that they do today, etc. and then charge the end users ON TOP OF that, because they can't make the numbers pencil out. Well schit, Jack, you seemed SOOOOOOOO sure the numbers would pencil out when you made the case to implement the tax hike on gasoline to cover those costs a few years back, weren't ya? That's my point. I have no problem with people paying for fair use, the problem is this is EVERYONE paying for something to be built, badly maintained by corrupt officials and agencies, and then the end users penalized with yet ANOTHER tax. It's a stinkload.

I agree with your goals.

End user fees sound good. Makes sense. Although, there are some instances where the wider group does, and must, subsidize the rest. For example, (rural) Eastern Washington is always whining about its tax money being used to fund (urban) Western Washington roads. The opposite is true actually. Which means that if Seattle stopped subsidizing road construction in Eastern Washington, those roads would go to shyit. Another example: Public transportation systems do not pay for themselves. They are subsidized by taxes. If bus fare represented the real cost, then less people would ride them, causing more traffic congestion and more need for road funds. Also, minimum wage workers would not be able to afford to travel from their ghettos to the expensive inner city to make Big Macs for the young lawyers there.

Corrupt officials and agencies? Please take the evidence you have to the local authorities. Corrupt officials can and should be removed. If you are just guessing, without actual evidence, then stop doing this until you are better informed.

Fact is, and maybe this is the uncomfortable truth nobody seems to want to face, is that roads are spendy. Maybe the gubmit doesn't currently have the money to meet your transportation needs. In that case, you either go without the gubmit services you need........or you and the rest of us need to buck up and fund those requests.