From: asylvain@felix.filenet.com (Alvin E. Sylvain)
Newsgroups: ca.general,ca.politics
Subject: Re: Help for California Libraries! Dire Need!
Date: 20 Jul 92 21:49:55 GMT
            <69964@apple.Apple.COM>
            <144tppINNe08@darkstar.UCSC.EDU>
            <1454rkINNejt@darkstar.UCSC.EDU>
Reply-To: asylvain@fritz.filenet.com (The Chipmunk)
Followup-To: ba.general,ba.politics,ca.general,ca.politics
Distribution: ca
Organization: Foundation for the Increased Wealth of Chipmunks

Written in article <1454rkINNejt@darkstar.UCSC.EDU>
 by carolo@cse.ucsc.edu (Carol Osterbrock):

: In article <144tppINNe08@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> stephen@orchid.UCSC.EDU () 
:    writes:
:
:> I think the IRS and State Franchise Tax Board should allow people to use 
:>    a form where they check off where they want their tax money spent.

:> [...]

:> If you don't own a car, should you pay highway/road taxes.  If you don't 
:>    have childern should you pay school taxes? 
:
: Highway and road taxes come from vehicle registrations, gasoline taxes,
: use fees charged to commercial truckers, and a lot of sources that
: target the actual users, as well as from the "general fund".  But even
: if you don't own a car, it is to your advantage to support the
: highways and roads.  If nothing else, fresh produce would cost a
: fortune if they had to bring it in by oxcart.

Well, look at it from this point of view.  Instead of paying road taxes,
we simply have the users of the road pay for it.  With me so far?  Then,
the road would be there, paid for.  No oxcarts necessary.

Now, this means that the nice folks bringing fresh produce might have to
pay a tad more than what they pay now, maybe not.  But the point is, the
trucking companies pay for their share of the road, not some poor sap 
with no car.

Now THIS means that the cost of fresh produce might go up, or maybe not.
Therefore, instead of paying taxes for something you never use, you'll
pay indirectly in the form of higher prices for fresh produce.  Or,
maybe not.

Competition is the best controller of prices, and someone who trucks
in from S.Carolina will have to compete with folks who grow next door.  
Therefore, prices might go up, but they might not.

The most likely scenario is that immediately after implementing a user-
fee-type scheme, prices would go up on the pretense that all these fees
are "too expensive."  Socialists would scream, "I told you so!"  But
soon thereafter, competition would drive the prices back down again.

The Gulf War did something like this to the price of gasoline.  In the
midsts of people yelling about "price gouging," the prices quietly crept
back down to where they were before the war.

Of course, this makes the assumption that user fees would be higher than
the taxes.  If handled privately, meaning less burocratic waste, there's
good reason to believe costs would actually DEcrease.  Also, since a
large portion of highway funds are already "user-type," in terms of
vehicle registration and gasoline taxes, the only part really eliminated
is the general fund.

SO the buyer of produce who has no car would very probably be much better
off, while folks who do have vehicles would notice little difference.

-- 
The Chipmunk.
Opinions are mine, batteries not included, void where prohibited.
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature 
is in session.
Xref: sparky ca.general:939 ca.politics:5931