The Tax Foundation Responds to the Antiplanner
Last Thursday, January 17, the Tax Foundation (TF) issued a paper arguing that only 32 percent of state and local highway costs were paid out of user fees, while the remaining costs came from “general funds.” In a post here, I pointed out that, actually, user fees for highways cover 76 percent of the costs […]
Blumenauer Endorses Vehicle-Mile Fees
Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) has introduced a bill directing the Department of Transportation to start vehicle-mile fee pilot programs in every state and authorizing $150 million to fund the program. Since privacy is a major concern for many people, Blumenauer’s bill wisely makes protection of personal privacy a top priority of the program. Oregon’s bicycle-riding, […]
Getting Highway Numbers Right
“Gasoline taxes and tolls pay for only a third of state and local road spending,” claims a report released yesterday by the Tax Foundation, a supposedly independent, non-partisan group. “The rest was financed out of general revenues.” According to the group’s calculations, users paid just $49 billion of the $155 billion cost of roads in […]
Kansas City Spared Light-Rail Vote
Kansas City voters won’t get a chance to vote on light rail despite the fact that proponents gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot. The court that rejected the measure said that the plan was unworkable because it didn’t provide enough money to build the mandated rail lines. A light-rail fanatic named Clay […]
Neglecting the Basics
Portland is proud of being a livable city. Sure, its streets are crumbling, city buildings are neglected, and its schools are crappy. But don’t worry; it’s a livable city. A building so ugly that Willamette Week newspaper uses the “ugly” tag for any article that refers to it. The Antiplanner noted last February that the […]
Confusing Inputs with Results
Why do liberals confuse inputs with outputs? Matthew Yglesias raves about how wonderful Los Angeles is for building more rail transit, even though the city’s last burst of rail construction resulted in a 17 percent decline in transit ridership. A Los Angeles attorney named Robert Garcie provides an antidote to Yglesias’ rantings. He notes that […]
The Transit Overtime Scandal
The Oregonian reports that drivers for TriMet, Portland’s transit agency, are taking so much overtime that many get little sleep. Paying for overtime costs taxpayers a lot of money and the lack of sleep creates hazardous situations. This TriMet light-rail train crashed into the bumpers at the end of the line because, investigators found, the […]
End Gas Tax? Yes! Pay for Roads with Sales Tax? No!
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell wants his state to be the first to end the gas tax. The Antiplanner supports that idea because gas taxes are an imperfect user fee. However, McDonnell proposes to replace the gas tax with a 0.8-cent sales tax that he says will generate more revenue than the gas tax. If your […]
More Automakers Move Toward Self-Driving Cars
Lexus cautiously presented its work towards a self-driving car at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show yesterday. Audi has taken the bolder step of obtaining a Nevada license for its self-driving car. Tire maker Continental has also entered the field. Lexus (which of course is owned by Toyota) is advertising its technology as more of […]
Land-Use Manifesto 2013
Here is the second of my statements of principles for the New Year. 1. The Property-Rights Principle: Government should not regulate land uses except to prevent trespasses or nuisances. People should be allowed to use their land in any way they see fit provided their use does not harm others (such as through air, water, […]
A Rental Crisis?
The Bipartisan Policy Center released an “infographic” arguing that there is an imminent shortage of rental housing. “Five to six million new renter households will form over the next ten years,” says the “graphic” (quotations used because it really isn’t that graphic), but a “slowdown in new construction . . . means rental market conditions […]
Not a Crisis After All
The “obesity crisis” became a hot topic just over a decade ago when the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published data showing that American weights were increasing. All sort of interest groups jumped on this crisis, including urban planners who blamed obesity on urban sprawl and driving. If obesity has a cause, it is more […]
