Quoting Perette Barella's comment (hello old friend):
I'm not so sure these taxes are unreasonable. I would set up the tax so that the cost of constructing, maintaining, expanding roads would be paid 100% through gas taxes. The more miles you drive, the more you contribute to road wear and congestion (and therefore the need to expand roads). Heavier vehicles wear the roadbed faster, but also tend to use more petrol/mile. Thus, the idea that having a per-gallon tax on gas is a reasonable (though not perfect) way of charging for road use/wear. What I don't know is how many cents/gallon would be required to generate this balancing income; it may be more or less than the 83 cents you quote. But I do know I pay $116/year to maintain half of the 40 foot section of lightly-used road in front of my house (this figure includes paving, plowing, overhaul every 50 years or so, and storm drains). So roads ain't cheap.
OK MY TURN NOW...
I disagree...oh, and by the way if you add up all the taxes-it's waaaaay more then $116/year. While I agree Rochester weather can be harsh, we have outstanding road crews that by far surpass other parts of NY (ever travel Rt. 17 E/W in the Southern Tier? Good god...bumpety bump bump bump). Except NYC gets more of EVERYTHING it seems.
NY State taxes are the, if not among the highest taxes in the country. We are overtaxed severely. I could see a more midrange tax of maybe 50 cents per gallon TOTAL and split it between the state/fed.
By your opinion, Perette, businesses should be paying the larger lump of the gas/road taxes then...and with more fillups then yes they do but maybe all corporations should be charged a separate tax to help with the roads then instead of slapping us with it.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
1. Do you care what other people think? Explain:
Sometimes yes or sometimes no. Depends on the situation. Regarding work, I troubleshoot the way I have for years and yes I sometimes make errors, but usually my way works.
2. What two things do you sense you're supposed to do before your life is over?
Watch my nieces Samantha & Chloe get married to good men.
3. Is your family life the way you imagined it would be? If not, what can you do to change it?
My family of my wife and I rock. My extended family--well we all have our difficulties.
4. If you can go back to your childhood for one day. What day and age will you choose?
The 3rd day of driver training for my adapted van. I took my hand off the wheel to scratch an itch and the trainer went ballistic. We were in a neighborhood going slow and were completely safe.
5. What are two skills you've wanted but don't have?
High-level coding and analytical thinking.
Before we go slamming the Gas/Oil companies (not that they don't deserve some scrutiny), let's look at our own government's role in this issue.
NY charges a tax of 65 cents per gallon of gas. If we lowered or eliminated this tax gas would drop dramatically. We are already overtaxed...Governor Pataki could score some points for his successor if he did this.
The Federal Gas Tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gas. Think about it! If we dropped both of these taxes, it'd drop 83 cents off the cost of gas. For families struggling this would be tremendous.
Here's a summer movie that both young and well-aged kids will enjoy.
75 degrees when I left for work....Izzy and I took a nice long walk this morning. She pooped in someone's yard...peed on another (and another & another). Its a great day!
We have another Open House on the condo Sunday...price has been lowered to $124k. We'll see what happens.
Suz and my niece Sam start a Membership class to officially join our church this Sunday. It'll run through June. I am very proud of them both. It is a major step for each one of them.
Finally-I just checked the USA Today's Life's People Section and there were THREE, not 1...not 2....but THREE mentions of the little Cruisespawn coming into the world. Please--this guy has gone from movie star to cult-afflicted Scientologist and Genuine Asshole. Papers should drop him like a hot potato
Avoiding a near-brutal sinus infection has plunged me into an ugly head cold.
Our database at work is down so getting info from people to assist them is like pulling teeth...with chopsticks.
Condo asking price goes down on Monday to approx $24,000. Hopefully that will spur some new interest.
Saturday we're going to an open house for a "DirectBuy" business where you can supposedly get furniture & stuff for greatly reduced prices...we'll see.
1) Please, for God's sake, have the computer ON!!!!
2) If you have DSL (High-Speed), put the DSL modem WHERE YOU CAN REACH IT!!
Thank you for the opportunity to rant...
Dad went home today...he is resting comfortable and appears to be in no pain.
Thanks for the prayers!!
My laptop had been experiencing a lot of disconnects on my network that were resolved simply by rebooting my laptop. Since it was planned as part of our "Move-to-new-house Upgrade", I went out and bought myself a Linksys-G Speedboost router and associated card for my laptop. Runs like a charm now...