Why not eliminate all subsidies?
There's a perfectly sensible solution to the inequities in
the current system. Just end the subsidies. No road construction
or maintenance should come out of taxes, just sidewalks. Every
vehicle on the road, whether it be a private automobile, a truck,
a public bus, a police car, a fire truck, or whatever, would be
assessed a `usage' fee to be paid at the same time as their
insurance. This would be calculated based on vehicle size, weight
and road usage. A large heavy bus that is driven about all day
would pay considerably more than a (relatively) light private
automobile that's only driven to and from work twice a day. (We
would have to have fairly broad categories for this, much as we
have different insurance categories for those who use their
vehicles for commercial purposes, for commuting, and for pleasure
only.) Bicycles would pay very little, if anything. (The sum they
could contribute might not be enough to make it worth the
administrative costs.)
The sum total of this money collected would be the budget for
all road maintenance and repair. Everybody would be paying their
fair share based on actual road usage. The money that BC Transit
paid for their fleet of busses would be passed on in increased
fares, the money that the fire department paid for their trucks
would be passed on through increased taxes (though these would be
more than offset by the tax decrease for roads).
Oddly enough, it's usually the so-called `capitalists' and
`conservatives' that object to this scheme. Apparently shelling
out millions of dollars a year to welfare programs that benefit
mostly the poor is a waste of money, but shelling out hundreds of
millions of dollars per year to things that benefit the rich far
more is an acceptable use.
Curt Sampson
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