respublica

The taxers are always a step ahead

Looks like many states aren't satisfied with the amount of money brought in by the gas taxes and a few are now considering a 'vehicle miles traveled' fee. Also known as a '   mileage-based user fee'.    Fee is a laugh, it's still a tax and cost us more. Delaware and Pennsylvania will be testing this idea out with 1000  volunteer drivers. They will be given a device which will track their miles and at the end of each month will be sent a 'faux invoice'.

The only issue the people behind this test haven't figured out yet is how to make sure future drivers will pay the bills they get. Also if this become law or general practice, we'll also be paying for the devices and who knows what all else. Government never has enough money.

Two good road questions today

Monday's Post-Dispatch regularly has a column named, "Ask the Road Guys" which as it name suggests, is for readers to send in questions they have about highway or surface roads. Today's column was interesting to me and I'd link it but I can never find it on the paper's website. When I typed in Ask the Road Guys, I received a series of stories on sports. Here is the first question:

"I know this has been asked before, but with all the rain we've had, it was so hard to see the lane markers-is ground glass possible when the stripes are painted?"

The answer: "We do mix reflective glass beads into the paint when we do re-striping work. On many state highways we also include reflective markers that are placed into pavement to avoid getting removed during snowplowing operations. We do continue to look at the latest federally approved materials to see what may work for Missouri's climate conditions."

All I have to say is, you can't see the lane lines in the dark and wet, and often on overcast days. So here is what Tennessee highways look like in the dark,  something you MoDOT folks may want to emulate.

How gorgeous is this? Even the metal side rails are glowing in the dark.

Question 2: 'What is up with the third lane from the right on the eastbound Poplar Street Bridge? It is striped wider than the other lanes. It reminds me of that episode from Seinfeld where Kramer painted over the lane markings to make them wider?"

I've noticed this too, as well as how rough the bridge lanes seem to be. The answer is:

"It is wider-this was all temporary striping done in December to get the bridge done. Some of it was done over the old lane lines to avoid the temporary striping coming off and creating confusion. In the spring, we'll remove and replace all the striping."

In the spring...

Tax on meat is gaining support

My post the other day on the suggestion by a group of science experts that we tax the heck out of meat was one of those articles I believed was on the extreme end of things and was more laughable than serious. But now I find the New York Times opinion page has weighed in and they agree.

"Chatham House, the influential British think tank, attributes 14.5 percent of global emissions to livestock — “more than the emissions produced from powering all the world’s road vehicles, trains, ships and airplanes combined.” Livestock consume the yield from a quarter of all cropland worldwide. Add in grazing, and the business of making meat occupies about three-quarters of the agricultural land on the planet."

The editorial goes on to say that a carbon tax on just beef would be a good way to start since it would turn households toward those meats with a smaller carbon footprint, like chicken or pork. Like chicken isn't in everything already. In any event most greenhouse gas experts do not believe this will happen, people all over the world eat meat. So, the writer ends with this sad trombone:

"Still, the idea of a carbon tax on beef makes me think. I crave the aroma of beef, from a burger, or a barbecue brisket cooked low and slow. It’s just harder to enjoy it now when I can also catch the faint whiff of methane lingering 20 years into our increasingly uncertain future."

What experts?

A story headline yesterday: "Experts say we should tax meat eaters the same way we tax smokers."

My first reaction was, "What experts"?  

"investment analysts suggest passing on the costs of the meat sector’s impacts to those directly responsible, the same way we tax smokers. The simple idea of the so-called meat tax is that if your burger ends up costing as much as a plate of caviar, you may decide to explore vegetarian options."

So whoever these experts are they want us to become vegetarians which opens a whole new set of problems. But I checked the link to the source and lo and behold its a farm animal investment initiative about which I know nothing. However want to raise investor awareness of the material impacts farm animal welfare issues can have on portfolios. 

But much of the story relates how how Meat production degrades the environment by releasing greenhouse gas emissions and using up a disproportionate amount of landand water per unit of protein.

So it's really a story about taxing all of us who choose to eat meat so high that we turn to broccoli and other vegetable products which can be made to look like meat.

End highway rest stops?

A post on St. Louis Urban Review contained a poll which asked readers, "Should Missouri Close Interstate Rest Stops?"

Well that stopped me in my tracks. I sure hope Missouri isn't considering doing this, those rest stops are the saving grace of long road trips. It seems that several states have already closed theirs-Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and South Dakota among others with Connecticut close to doing the same. They did this because of state transportation budget shortfalls.

Although Urban Review admits there is no known plan in Missouri to do this, it just might be one of those fair warning type things. Losing these rest stops take away the most convenient opportunity for drivers to do what they have to do and get back on the road. Plus you don't have to feel as though you need to buy something as you would pulling into an off ramp gas station or fast food place.

If you think we don't have too many federal programs

You're kidding yourselves.

Woke up this morning to all of the cable news stations talking about new administration plans to cut federal programs and depending upon what channel you watched, this announcement was met with cheers or jeers. This plan reminds me of the days when Senator Coburn would annually put out his Wastebook which listed in detail all the money spent wastefully. Some of these items would make us laugh, but in the end they were too often a ridiculous waste of time and money.

Take this news which came out last month. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees are spending so much time performing job-protecting civil service union work that the quality of care provided to sick veterans suffers, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

"The VA has no clue how many hours employees devote to “official time” — time spent working for unions during work hours on the taxpayer dime — because the VA has no standardized system for recording and calculating official time agency-wide, GAO found."

In effect these employees were spending more working hours on union work than the job they were being paid for.

Senator Jeff Flake has taken over retired Senator Tom Coburn's annual listing of wasteful government spending (Wastebook) and this is what part of what he and his staff uncovered.

The National Institute of Health studies:

1. Why do some people see Jesus' face on toast. 3.5 million
2. Do drunk birds slur when they sing? 5 million
3. Does cocaine make honey bees dance? 243,00

National Science Foundation:

1. Why does walking with coffee cause it to spill? 143,000
2. Are cheerleaders more attractive in a squad?  1.1 million
3. What makes goldfish feel sexy? 3.9 million

There are more at the link.

Now this next is from the 2017 Wastebook

1.7 million for a comedy club starring holograms of dead comedians

74 million for a program that allows taxpayer-backed loans to be repaid with peanuts

1.5 million to test the endurance of a fish on a treadmill.

There are more and more and more of these at the link.

So when you hear cable news talking today about the administration wanting to make huge cuts at the Federal Drug Administration, or the EPA, think back to how money is being used in most federal departments. Maybe reporters who want to do some Pulitzer prize winning work could dig into this instead of just putting out scary headlines.

 

Pork- It's wasteful spending

Before he retired from the Senate, Oklahoma senator, Tom Coburn, yearly put out a book sized report the called the Waste Book which listed all the ridiculous things tax payer money would be spent on. Since his leaving, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona has continued this process, but has re-named it "PORKemon Go". One the first items listed for wasteful spending this year is this from San Diego which reads like something from The Onion. Things that look like The Onion are big right now. 

"At the University of California San Diego, a $560,000 stimulus grant from the National Science Foundation funded a study measuring the endurance of fish on a treadmill."

Then there's this: "A $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health was used, in part, to analyze the partying habits of fraternity and sorority members on college campuses." What did they find?  Members of Greek letter organizations consume higher quantities of alcohol, report more frequent drinking, and experience more alcohol-related consequences” than other students.

Captain Obvious.

The link also includes money spent Mid-America Airport near Mascoutah Illinois, a part of the St. Louis Metro East. Here is a link to the entire POKemon Go report.

How in the world things like these get included in budget with monies actually dispersed is beyond me.

Illinois school districts which will gain the most funding

The Illinois stopgap budget agreement will allot 25 school districts gain more funding than others. Surprisingly, Collinsville will be one of them and will gain 1.08 million. I'm surprised to learn Collinsville Unit Ten is considered Impoverished.

Education funding had been the main sticking point in budget negotiations between Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic legislative leaders. But in an 11th-hour deal, they agreed on a plan that adds an additional $361 million to K-12 funding over what was spent last year.

The measure also sends an extra $250 million to districts that serve a high percentage of low-income students through a new “equity grant,” as well as $80 million for early childhood education. Of that, Chicago Public Schools stands to gain about $131 million, while the rest is split among other impoverished districts across the state.

Racing round the clock

This is crazy. Illinois lawmakers are said to have been racing against the clock to knock out a budget that could actually pass. I guess midnight tonight is the end of the legislative session. They've only had how many months to do this but spent their time finger pointing instead of actually working. They never did have a budget last year so we'll see.

IDOT to walk away?

IDOT has announced that due to the Illinois budget impasse they will be stopping all road construction on June 30th. My first reaction to this was, "yay!" but then gave it a bit more thought. Does this mean they just barricade lanes and routes they've been working on so it will be even more difficult to get past? 

Actually the Metro East doesn't have all that much IDOT work going on so it wouldn't affect us that much.

Another question is, will this action if carried through be taken up by public schools in the fall and they not open? It's time Illinois legislators start working together and stop standing on partisanship and get a budget passed.