The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Leave it to a Politician to ruin a good thing. And according to him. It's not a Tax.  ::)

James Inhofe.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R., Okla.), who just took the reins of the panel, said he is open to considering raising the gas tax as a way to help pay for the dwindling Highway Trust Fund that keeps up the nation's roads and other transportation infrastructure.
"Everything is on the table," Mr. Inhofe said in a Wednesday briefing with reporters to preview his committee agenda. He said his top priority is passing a long-term transportation bill, whose spending runs out at the end of May.

With gasoline prices at lows not seen since 2009, some political observers and business executives say now is the ideal time to raise the 18.4 cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline and the 24.4 cent-a-gallon tax on diesel fuel, which haven't increased since 1993. The taxes are the main source of revenue for the highway trust fund.

Mr. Inhofe didn't say he supports raising the gas tax, and he refutes referring to it as such. "It's not a tax," Mr. Inhofe said. "It's a user fee."

He also said this period of cheap gas isn't really a window of opportunity given it could close sooner than Congress is going to act. "You don't know what's going to happen to the price of gas," Mr. Inhofe said.

They want to raise the user fee gas tax by 12cpg. That would put Oklahoma at a total of 47.40cpg for gasoline and 50.40cpg for diesel. For Oregon that would make it 61.47cpg for gas and 66.74cpg for diesel.

And I'm sure that all this money will go to all the road projects the stimulus went to.

http://www.api.org/~/media/files/statistics/statemotorfuel-onepagers-jan-2015.pdf (http://www.api.org/~/media/files/statistics/statemotorfuel-onepagers-jan-2015.pdf)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/06/politics/gas-price-politics/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/06/politics/gas-price-politics/index.html)

It's a great idea. Infrastructure spending hasn't kept pace with inflation and has been additionally impacted by more and more fuel efficient vehicles.

Long past time to raise the gas tax.

I hope he doesn’t fly for 48 hours after that incredible spin.  He’s got to be awfully dizzy.

Swake, I’d disagree on the Federal gas tax increase, the feds have many ways to fund infrastructure.  Leave it up to states or municipalities so they can guarantee it ends up in their own coffers.  Can you imagine how much better Tulsa’s roads could be if the city were to capture 10 cents per gallon in uh, user fees?

I would be very much behind the state raising the state gas tax and allowing cities to do the same for local roads, but you and I both know that's never going to happen.

With the way Oklahoma (mis)manages the Turnpike Authority, can you imagine the mess allowing the states to directly handle funding?  Oy.

The gas tax has not kept up with inflation, it simply has not been raised for far too long. As it is not percentage based, it needs to match inflation to cover the increase in construction costs. Couple that with more roads and vehicles getting better gas mileage, and we have far, far less money for Federal roadways than we ever have (since WWII anyway).

You can hate taxes all you want, but we need to pay for roads, bridges, etc.  Even Inhofe agrees that is a proper role of government.

1932, the gas tax was 1 cent to find the national highway projects
1952 - 2 cents
1983 it is up to 9 cents
1990: 14 cents
1993: 18.4 cents

And that's where we stand. Adjusted for inflation, we should be closer to 30 cents today. Then we should raise it more to adjust for more vehicles, more road miles, bigger bridges, and better mile per gallon... in order to cover the equivalent "road miles per gallon" or whatever we need to cover.

As to the "not a tax" thing... a "use tax" is a preferred method for taxation. no doubt it can be the most economical and makes great sense in some areas. BUT -it is a tax. Saying otherwise is ridiculous.

I would rather the tax be based on a percentage of sales rather than per gallon. Plot gallons used on one line and money needed to maintain roads on another and they have no relation.

Sorry, I keep forgetting what state we live in.

The issue with setting the gas tax as a percentage of the sale is that the price of gas is more volatile and pushes the tax collection to the retail sale and it doesn’t take into account increased fuel efficiency over time. Find the right tax rate and then automatically index it annually for the rate of inflation and average fuel efficiency. Kind of how the feds set the mileage reimbursement rate annually now.

There’s also an interesting idea out there to cap oil imports to support a floor on prices to help the US oil industry. That’s a good idea too so that we keep the money we spend on oil within the US instead of sending so many billions overseas. It may cost a bit more at the pump, but, it’s good overall for the US economy to reduce imports.

So you are suggesting a sliding scale to keep gasoline prices and taxes at a fixed point so that the price doesn't change but the tax does. So if consumption goes down by improved fuel economy, and production remains the same and the price goes down, the tax would go up. Use it less tax it more. Which also plays into your other statement to enact regulation to artificially keep the price of crude oil at a certain level as to control the market. Sounds like gov't price fixing, and telling the Exxon/Mobil, Conoco/Phillips, BP, Texaco/Shell that oil they produce overseas can't be shipped to the US, and the oil they produce in the US can't be shipped overseas even though oil is a global commodity and bought and sold under free trade.

You do realize that the shale oil produced now is on private land to avoid the gov't regulations on drilling on federal land, and the downturn in the price per barrel is based on OPEC ramping up production to help enforce sanctions against ISIS/ISIL the JV squad in Syria and Iraq, and to punish Putin for his incursions in Crimea, and to mention that Venezuela has added to their debt of $20billion more from China to keep themselves afloat, and their repayment is a guaranteed 600,000 bbl/day payment.

Taxes and fees are different, but still cost the consumer the same.

Taxes are based on dollar value. The amount of money you spend or what something is worth. Fees are based on something other than money...per gallon, per person, per pound, per day, etc.

It's still Jim Inhofe at his "finest"....

Tell me again why this state keeps electing that guy?  And others...

Oh, yeah... I almost forgot....!

No, I am suggesting that Saudi Arabia is attempting to kill the US energy industry and that is not in our best interest. The Saudis are not our friends.

I think what is also happening is that they are looking around at the new battery and renewable energy technologies that have been percolating up recently, some flat out incredible new technology out there, (along with potential new electric cars) and can see the writing on the wall.  What they are doing is just as much a "shot across the bow" at those things as the US shale gas industry. 

I fully support anything that makes it less likely that people will drive more because of higher fuel prices and therefore be in my way....:)

That is probably true as well.

We were talking about Saudi and oil today at work - and came to the general conclusion that they are definitely trying to "slap" us and put us back in our place.

The Saudis and the Qataris don't want us pumping oil, they want our money, and they use that money to fund radical right wing Islam. They are dumping oil at below cost in order to do it.

Setting a trade floor on oil prices to support the US Oil industry saves US jobs, keeps our money spent on energy here (or at least within NAFTA) and keeps money out of the hands of the kinds of people that are funding the Imams that teach terror. 

100% right about them not wanting us to pump oil....except for the "below cost" part.... it doesn't cost Saudi (or anyone in the US or Canada) anywhere near even $25 a barrel to produce oil on average.  NOBODY loses money at $40 a barrel - or even $30.  The profits are only large, rather than huge!  Nor does it cost anywhere near that much in the vast majority of the places in the world.   North Sea probably gets close to that now....it is one of the higher cost venues for oil production.

Speaking of Saudi Arabia......
http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/raif-badawi-to-be-publicly-flogged-every-week-for-months-after-insulting-islam/story-fnh81ifq-1227185842850

Saudi Arabia is one of the most evil and repressive nations on earth, they make North Korea and Cuba look like rank amateurs. Their entire economy is based on oil profits and slavery guest workers while exporting the most vile form of Islam around the world.

But they are our friends.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/colour-slavery-2013112483045927138.html

With friends like these...

http://dailysignal.com/2014/12/31/inequality-steroids-saudi-women-facing-terrorism-charges-driving

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/congressmen-demand-release-of-report-on-saudi-role-in-911-attacks

Seems I’ve heard the all in cost for oil from a traditional vertically drilled well in Saudi is $20/bbl.

I should have said below our cost.

Love that phrase "all in"... means "slush fund, pull them out of the air guesstimate so it looks like they don't make the kind of profits that are really involved numbers". 

Saudi is in the $5 area.  Back in the good old days, they could just punch a sand point into the desert and watch it fizz out the pipe - like the gushers we had in Glenpool.

North Sea is expensive - haven't heard anyone talking about it for about 5 years, but then it was probably as close to that $25 - 30 range as occurs.  Nigeria has some high cost zones (deep water).  Venezuela has a tough time sucking that tar they have out of the ground.  Takes lots of electricity to pull that stuff out.  Plus steam, CO2, chemicals....

Shipping is an adder - FOB paid by the buyer.

If Paul Ryan is to be believed, no gas taxes are coming.

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/16/paul-ryan-read-my-lips-no-new-gas-taxes/

Gotta love Inhofe and Orrin Hatch....

“I prefer not to increase taxes, but to me that’s a user fee,” Hatch bemoaned. “People who use the highways ought to pay for them. And that’s a small price to pay to have the best highway system in the world.”


As if we had the best highway system in the world....   lol, lol....

Local gasoline taxes. No shock that our roads are terrible.

(http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/UserFiles/Image/maps/gastaxes_r1.png)

And Diesel taxes are worse, especially considering the damage that trucks do to roads compared to cars.

(http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/diesel2013_large.png)

Have any info on how much of that gas tax is actually spent on roads for each state?  States that charge general sales tax on gas are probably spending that money on something else.

Gas tax is only part of toad funding, with most of it going to state and federal highways. Oklahoma suffers from numerous deficient bridges and most of them are county responsibilities.

(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02246/cane-toad_2246996b.jpg)

I knew someone would correct that, warts and all.

Here is a pretty close breakdown on OK tax/spending percentages/ratios.  They say about 6% of state revenue is from fuel excise taxes.  I'm betting most of that ends up with the counties....just about as bad a steward of our money as the Oklahoma Transportation Authority (Turnpikes).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Oklahoma