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re: Would u pay 17 extra cents a gallon if you knew that 100% went to roads and bridges?

Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:29 am to
Posted by adamb2151
Houston, Texas
Member since Jun 2013
6586 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:29 am to
quote:

No you don't, your roads are no better than Louisiana. I am tired of hearing this damn lie.


Lol, ok chief.
Posted by Nuts4LSU
Washington, DC
Member since Oct 2003
25468 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:34 am to
quote:

if you knew that 100% went to roads and bridges?


That's a common deceptive practice of governments whose people have no concept of the fungibility of money.

Step 1: Vote for this measure, and all the money will go to this popular program, says the government.

Step 2: People vote for it, the measure generates X dollars in revenue.

Step 3: Legislature cuts X dollars from the existing funding to the program.

Step 4: Revenues of X dollars from the new measure are then allocated to the program, with legislators claiming they've kept their promise that the money would go to that program even though total funding for the program is exactly the same as it was before.

Step 5: Legislature now has X dollars of unrestricted revenue (which it cut from the previous funding for the program) to spend on whatever it wants.

Step 6: Profit.
This post was edited on 3/17/17 at 9:04 am
Posted by PhiTiger1764
Lurker since Aug 2003
Member since Oct 2009
13864 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:35 am to
quote:

Typical BR. Bitch about infrastructure, traffic, schools etc, but vote down a a tax to fix said problems every time. How do people there expect for the place to improve without the taxpayers paying for it?

Nah bro. Just trim the fat!

There's half a billion dollars in easily trimmable fat to immediately reallocate to our infrastructure issues.

17 cents per gallon probably amounts to $100-$150 a year for most drivers. Our current roads probably help add this much cost to us via wear and tear on our vehicles and wasted gas idling.. not to mention whatever you value your time wasted in traffic at.

But no we can solve everything if we just TRIM THE FAT!
Posted by YouAre8Up
in a house
Member since Mar 2011
12792 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:35 am to
Nope........ Don't trust JBE or any of him pals.
Posted by Macavity92
Member since Dec 2004
5981 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:37 am to
We already pay 20 cents a gallon to the state. They need to find a way to pay for this inside of the budget they have.

Moreover, in my lifetime no "dedicated" fund has ever remained dedicated. Most do not even make 10 years as "dedicated" funds.
Posted by Pouvoir Cadien
Baton Rouge, LA
Member since Dec 2012
14 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:39 am to
Does anyone in this thread know how the transportation trust fund works? The portion of the gas tax that DOTD receives currently goes into the fund. It cannot be used for anything else (i.e. "lining politicians pockets"). The state police can tap into it, but thanks to the voters a couple of years ago, the amount was significantly limited.

So an increase in the gas tax that is dedicated to roads and bridges would go directly into the transportation trust fund, which, constitutionally, can only be used for transportation.
Posted by thegambler
Louisiana
Member since Oct 2012
1425 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:44 am to
The only tax that goes to infrastructure is the gas tax. It goes to the transportation trust fund. Sales tax, property tax and all the other taxes you pay do not go to roads.
Posted by FightnTiger
Louisiana
Member since Jul 2007
1067 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:45 am to
Haha..nope

LINK
This post was edited on 3/17/17 at 8:50 am
Posted by Jake88
Member since Apr 2005
68279 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:48 am to
No. And, I'd bet less than 50% goes to roads.
Posted by Pouvoir Cadien
Baton Rouge, LA
Member since Dec 2012
14 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:49 am to
Correct FightnTiger. After that, the people voted to cap the amount that could be used by the state police.
Posted by Indubitably
Member since Jul 2015
55 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:55 am to
The state police issue was pointed out in his post. Not exactly the "gotcha moment" you were going for
Posted by doubleb
Baton Rouge
Member since Aug 2006
36049 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:58 am to
From the article you linked.

quote:

The Louisiana Constitution allows up to 20 percent of the trust fund money to be spent on ports, parish roads, state flood control projects and the state police for "traffic control purposes."


Just because money goes to the transportation trust fund doesn't mean it goes to roads and bridges.

As you already pointed out over 60 million dollars went to fund the State Police.

My question is how much was siphoned off for pet projects involving the ports, flooding, parish roads, etc.?

There is no mechanism tying the gas tax to state highways or state bridges, and La. voters need to know that. JBE and the gang at the capital will be creative, they'll define how the money is spent and I wouldn't trust a word they say.
Posted by Oyster
North Shore
Member since Feb 2009
10224 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 8:58 am to
quote:

Would u pay 17 extra cents a gallon if you knew that 100% went to roads and bridges?Posted on 3/16/17 at 10:34 pm


Who's Brother in law gets the inflated contracts?
Posted by CharlesLSU
Member since Jan 2007
31910 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 9:07 am to
Yep. And this sentiment is exactly why you cavemen need to stop complaining. You want better infrastructure but are unwilling to do what it takes.

Sad. Nothing will change for any of you.
Posted by Nuts4LSU
Washington, DC
Member since Oct 2003
25468 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 9:09 am to
quote:

no "dedicated" fund has ever remained dedicated. Most do not even make 10 years as "dedicated" funds.


The whole idea of a "dedicated" fund is pretty much a myth. Money is fungible. About the only guarantee you get with a dedicated fund is that it sets the minimum level of funding for whatever program it's dedicated to. Other funding for that program can always be cut to free up the same amount of money the dedicated fund is generating for it, so the program gets no additional funding and an amount of money equal to what the fund generates is available to the government to spend as it wants.
Posted by NYNolaguy1
Member since May 2011
20896 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 9:09 am to
quote:

if you knew that 100% went to roads and bridges?


It's all going towards the roads they said. Trust us, they said...

You can forgive me for being a wee bit skeptical here...
Posted by 100851
Member since Jan 2015
107 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 9:16 am to
Shouldn't our president be helping us?
Posted by BigB0882
Baton Rouge
Member since Nov 2014
5308 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 9:17 am to
In theory that sounds great but we all know 95% will go to studies on how to improve roads and bridges and then the other 5% will go to small projects which take 5 years to complete and need widening again by the time of completion.

If I knew they would build a loop or do something about the bridge traffic, then absolutely. I live in EBR but work in WBR. Getting home every day is such a mess and it has only gotten worse every year.
Posted by Delacroix
Member since Oct 2008
3987 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 9:21 am to
quote:

Does anyone in this thread know how the transportation trust fund works? The portion of the gas tax that DOTD receives currently goes into the fund. It cannot be used for anything else (i.e. "lining politicians pockets"). The state police can tap into it, but thanks to the voters a couple of years ago, the amount was significantly limited.

So an increase in the gas tax that is dedicated to roads and bridges would go directly into the transportation trust fund, which, constitutionally, can only be used for transportation.




I am usually in the camp of the "slash it" mentality. But people don't realize how far fuel efficiency has come since the 1980's when we last raised the gas tax. Vehicles now need far less fuel, and combine that with inflation and the rising costs to maintain and build roads/bridges, the gas tax's value has significantly decreased.

Nearly every state has raised it's gas tax since Louisiana last raised theirs. I understand the public's skepticism about government mis-allocating the funds, but something desperately needs to be done to fund our projects.
This post was edited on 3/17/17 at 9:49 am
Posted by tigerfoot
Alexandria
Member since Sep 2006
56329 posts
Posted on 3/17/17 at 9:23 am to
quote:

ould u pay 17 extra cents a gallon if you knew that 100% went to roads and bridges?

No, I would rather drive on gravel
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