[PRCo] Re: PATrain

[Fred Schneider]

Absolutely correct, Derrick.   

But when you have a voting public that buys their groceries on Mastercard and then uses the Visa card to pay that bill because they are in over their heads, and then they lose their homes when the price of gas goes up and their variable rate mortgage goes up (Gee whiz, I didn't think the bank would screw me by raising the interest rate), then the politicians have to cater to them to get their votes.   

When you adjust fuel taxes to inflation, the politicians have totally abrogated their responsibility.   On my most recent trips around the united states I have observed that the highways have simply been neglected because there is no money in the kitty to fix anything.  Doing something about it would mean pushing the price of gasoline up at the same time one idiot politician tells us he knows how to lower it to $2.50 if we will elect his butt.   Or we could do it like New Jersey .... have some of the lowest gas taxes in the United States and in exchange for that, some of the highest property tax rates ... you simply use advalorem taxes to fix roads.   I know two people with homes in North Jersey with annual property tax bills in the $30,000 to $35,000 range and one is my sister-in-law.   They are large homes.  You know my house, Derrick.   It would probably have a tax rate of $28,000 a year up there .... more than three times what I am paying in Pennsylvania.   Would you rather have that or 20 cents more at the pump? 

Perhaps there should be separate and parallel bridges over every river ...

A nice smooth, well-maintained one for those people who pay a higher tier of road taxes ... for those fiscally secure people ... they can live in small homes or apartments ... whatever it takes to live within their means.

And then the rough, unpainted, pot holed, rusted structure for the guys who want lower taxes.   When it collapses with them on it, they get the Darwin Award.     

On Mar 18, 2012, at 10:23 PM, Derrick Brashear wrote:

>> Public agencies never have the fortitude it takes to raise fares with inflation because it might offend the voting constituency.  The last thing a local politician wants is a protest march or angry letters to the editor over a fare hike.    Inflation has pushed costs up about 7.7 times since PAT took over from Pittsburgh Railways.   That would suggest that the transit fares today should be about $2.30 for a one zone ride if we had the same load factors we had in 1963, maybe $4 for a ride from Drake.  A special transfer should also be somewhere around 4.00.  Again, if the buses were just as full as they were in 1963.
> 
> Gas taxes haven't gone up either, especially when you consider average
> fleet economy numbers. I spent a lot of quality time with I-70 today.
> I doubt it turned a profit, though.
> 
> "So?"
> 
> Of course, we're about to lose a bunch of service, there are plenty of
> letters, marches, and the politicians seem to just be wringing hands
> (local) or saying "tough" (state).
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Derrick
> 
>