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House Aims to Stop Highway Robbery
There's not a lot to like in this year's federal transportation bill, or for that matter in any year's transportation bill. But here's one proviso that might get the lead out:
The House version of the "American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Financing Act of 2012" could end the Highway Trust Fund's transit account—a 1980s concoction whereby a fifth part of your federal gasoline tax goes to fund public transportation.
Like most reforms these days, this one is the healthful fruit of bankruptcy. Every time you buy a gallon of gas in this nation, you pay 18.2 cents to Uncle Sam. The original rationalization for the federal gas tax was that it was collected in a "Highway Trust Fund" and used to pay for road infrastructure.
In 1983, a transit account was created [pdf], diverting 20 percent of the trust fund to pay for the mass transit dreams of local potentates. The Highway Trust Fund (which President Barack Obama is reportedly planning to rename "Transportation Trust Fund") has paid for railroad pork all over the country. Here's Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) taking a bow for having spent your gas tax on Atlanta transit developments including the MARTA Smart-Card fare system, the Lovejoy to Griffin Commuter Rail Line, the BeltLine, and something called the Atlanta Inter-Modal Passenger Facility.
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