Re:Why do poor school kids have to clean up rich commuters’ ...
by 3rdgender on Friday March 08, 2019 @05:17AM
(#19336410)
You could argue if roads should be paid for by the government, and I would be sympathetic to it. But you could at least make a case that roads benefit everyone (even people who don't drive buy the goods that trucks deliver via roads), and that it would be too impractical to privatize all roads. In any case, it would be a different discussion from "rich people are ruining the health of our kids". That's what I criticize about the article - the spin. Personally I actually hate cars and think they are given too much space in modern society.
Not collecting property taxes for roads would be just another way of the government paying for the roads.
In many states and certainly federally, the fuel tax does not pay for the roads themselves, much less their externalities.
One of the many ways that driving is subsidized, is that nobody is paying property taxes for the property that the roads use.
In most cases, local property taxes are earmarked for the local municipality, so in many cases, the inner city school does not get funding from the commuter.
Furthermore, many states with a highly disparate representation of suburban/rural vs urban representation (ie counties and cities based on geography), tax revenue is often taken from the city to support suburban/rural initiatives and roadways - this is also true on the federal level (ie Manhattan is a giver to rural military bases)