Why is a new tax necessary?
According to Steve Miller (R), Casa Grande,
“(What we’re) asking the citizens to really understand is, [state and federal] revenues for transportation have virtually dried up, particularly for new projects. There’s just not money that’s gonna be available.”And Craig McFarland, mayor of Casa Grande, says:
“I’m not a pro-tax guy . . . I don’t like taxes, but I don’t see any other alternative … From my perspective, if we do nothing, our roads won’t change. In fact, they will continue to get worse . . . We all benefit from that spending.”Well, OK. But below are some questions you might want to ask, plus my comments.
How are roads in Arizona funded?
Some localities (mainly Maricopa and Pima counties) fund their road projects with local excise taxes.
In general, roads are funded by the state via the Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF). The idea is that highway users should pay for the highways they use.
Comment: A state entity like the State of Arizona can't manage a highway system efficiently. Resources will always be wasted and apportioned according to political factors. Furthermore, it's not possible to know how many resources should be allocated to a certain use outside of a market structure.
Smaller government entities (such as counties) might be able to apportion resources more efficiently than the State.
Where does the HURF get its money?
Gas tax of $0.18 per gallon goes to HURF. Vehicle license and registration fees also contribute to the HURF.
Who steals money from the HURF?
HURF revenues are raided to fund the Department of Public Safety. The governor and legislators do this.
Comment: Laws that punish victimless "crimes" and enforce bureaucratic regulations are expensive to administer. The War On Drugs and Securing Our Borders has sucked resources away from maintenance of the transportation system.
What is the argument for a hike in the gas tax?
Some legislators have proposed a $.10 hike in the gas tax, arguing that since there has been no hike in the gas tax since 1991, fiscal realities and present-day technology are not being taken into account. Since 1991, electric cars have become a reality, gas- and diesel-engine cars get better mileage, and inflation has lowered the value of tax revenue.
Comment: Although inflation has increased the prices of goods that consumers buy, incomes have not necessarily increased proportionally.
Will all residents of Pinal County benefit equally from the proposed transportation scheme?
This topic is seldom brought up, but occasionally a politician will claim that tax money spent on roads benefits everyone.
Comment: Apportionment of tax resources for transportation is done on the basis of "need," i.e., who can muster enough political pressure. The greater the population, the greater the political power. Under a democratic system, one would expect resources to flow from sparsely-populated areas to populated areas.
There is no objective way to measure whether or not resources are apportioned efficiently, since coerced resources (taxes) can never be an indication of the tax-payer's utility. Therefore, it's actually impossible to prove that anyone will benefit from government spending on transportation infrastructure.
Transportation is important. But does that mean that anything labelled "transportation" is good? How is the bureaucrat to decide between roads and railroads? If roads, by what calculus does he decide between two- four- or six-lane highways? If he decides wrong, what does it matter to him? He still draws a salary and a handsome pension. And what is the metric that would show whether a right or wrong decision had been made? Traffic jams ostensibly prove that road capacity is insufficient. But if the resources to build the road were coercively extracted, then everyone has an incentive to use the road that might not have existed if resources were allotted according to market forces.
