🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <36ca8e92$0$29682@mojo.crosslink.net>, "John Gilmer"
<gilmer@crosslink.net> wrote:

> 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.  [Eric wasn't counting Amtrak.] 

Railroads pay property taxes on their (privately owned) right of way.
Norfolk Southern's movement of trains is handled by the railroad's own
in-house dispatchers, not the government-provided air traffic control
system (and the weather services provided by the government agency
NOAA).  Railroad profits and stockholder dividends are taxed, yes, but
profits aren't counted until after the cost of the infrastructure is
removed.  Truckers and airlines don't have to pay the full cost to
build and maintain their lanes of travel.
 
> 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.

One thing that seems to get left out of the equation is the government
ownership of the highway right of way.  Land owned by the Commonwealth
isn't subject to local real estate taxes, which cuts into local
revenues.  There may be a trade-off in that increased development
brought by the highway increases other property values, but there are
also cases where a county looses out.  VDOT is pushing big time to
widen I-81 for the length of the state.  In a number of sections, more
right of way will be needed, since the median can't be used for the
additional lanes.  Some localities may benefit from the increased
capacity, some may see no change, and others could lose more taxable
land to the state.

Bruce in Blacksburg


-- 
Bruce B. Harper
Blacksburg, Virginia