Many problems deserve our attention. Motorists being gouged at the gas pump by our own state isn’t one of them.
The question of who pays the ferryman is one from ancient Greece, and one’s eternal fate hung in the balance. Loved ones would place coins on the eyes or under the tongue of the deceased to ensure they would have the toll to pay Charon the ferryman, whose job it was to take souls across...
As North Carolina keeps growing, so will the need for our governments to ensure the adequate provision of an essential service: mobility. As they tackle the problem, policymakers need to keep two facts in mind. First, while the state legislature has enacted several necessary reforms of how we fund highways and streets, the job is...
I doubt very seriously that most of us will be willing to pay high-enough taxes or fees to close a $24-billion gap between planned highway projects and expected revenues.
During the 1920s, North Carolina’s paved road mileage exploded by 92%. The commercial and social life of our state was radically transformed.
A national expert offers five reasons to rely on fees to guide N.C. Department of Transportation decisions.
North Carolina, per-capita, is one of the most rural states in the country and would be disproportionally impacted by a new mileage tax scheme.
In states that do tax income, 16 have lower rates than North Carolina.
Gov. Cooper’s commission proposes raising the sales tax and using half the proceeds to reduce the gas tax. The net tax hike would come to as much as $6.3 billion over the next 10 years.
No reform of our financing system, no matter how carefully designed and skillfully marketed, can generate enough revenue to fund all desired roads at a cost that won’t provoke intense opposition.
If more revenue is truly needed, states and localities should raise it. That will make it less likely the money will be spent on low-priority projects.
