🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello,

John Gilmer wrote:
> 
<snip requoted discussion>
 
> There are few (if any) taxes on railroad specific operations.   Railroads
> don't pay $.20/.30  per gal in tax on fuel.   Railroad passenger don't pay a
> "security fee" to get on the train.

But railroads _do_ pay property taxes on the rail lines.
To many small towns, the rail road property tax is one of the
biggest sources of revenue.  Rail tracks are, after all private
property.  Analysis does indicate that railroads are among
the least subsidized transportation systems.

The railroads did get a substantial subsidy in the 19th
century with the land grants.

> 
> Road transporation pays its share through extra taxes.  To imply that a tax
> paid road is an economic subsidy is nonsense.   The cost accounting may not
> be perfect (revenues generated by a road section may not equal expenditures)
> but the gas tax road building system ends up with a government surplus.

But this is a general problem of Congress using surpluses
in various "Trust Funds" (do you really trust Congress with
money?) to cover the deficit in the operating budget.

I'll grant you that the "big three" are Social Security,
the Highway Trust, and the Airport Trust, but there are many
more.

Fixing this will require a general reform of Congress, something
the current members don't see the need for.

<snip sigs>

-- 

Cheers!
Dan Nagle		dnagle@erols.com