LETTERS
Don't raise taxes to
fix transportation;
spend effectively
Jon Marshall's article
about Chicago area mass
transit and road building interests teaming up to mutually
raise their funding levels (see
Illinois Issues, February 1998,
page 14) somehow manages to avoid
any discussion of existing road and
transit tax levels or the huge tax
increases necessary to support their
"partnership."
Suffice to say that transit and road
building interests are anxious to
increase Illinois' already high state
gasoline tax as well as other taxes and
fees. Unfortunately, Marshall's story
offered no analysis of whether existing taxes are being spent effectively.
Illinois gasoline consumers already
pay the fifth highest base gasoline tax
in the nation (gas tax plus sales tax).
Moreover, Illinois is the only state to
allow local governments to levy gasoline taxes. In Chicago, these
ill-conceived local taxes
combined with state taxes
add up to the highest gas
tax in the nation — nearly
60 cents per gallon.
Most consumers accept gasoline taxes because they believe
they're "user fees," i.e., the taxes they
pay go to support roads or in some
cases mass transit. Not true in Chicago and Cook County! None of the
tens of millions in local taxes raised
annually goes to roads or transit.
So, if local governments refuse to
spend existing gasoline tax revenue on
mass transit or roads, why should
Illinois gasoline consumers support
another increase to what already is
the highest gasoline tax in the nation?
The problem in Illinois is not the
level of transportation taxation, but
rather how those revenues are spent.
David A. Sykuta
Illinois Petroleum Council
Springfield
36 / March 1998 Illinois Issues