The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has reacted to McCain's proposal to lift the federal gas tax during the summer, and the news is not good. More on this after the jump.
Senator McCain’s Gas Tax Holiday Would Hurt The Economy -- Don’t Cut Transportation Funds
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has come out against McCain's "gas tax holiday." Their concern is that the tax break will hurt the transportation infrastructure and won't provide the economic stimulus that he claims. Here is why:
While we need new ideas for economic growth and prosperity, the three-month gas tax elimination proposal is simply a shortsighted band-aid that would have little impact on the average American, who, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), would only save $28, an amount that doesn’t even begin to cover one gas fill-up for many Americans.
$28? That's not even a week's worth of groceries for most families. Despite only giving relief of a few dollars to the average person, the tax holiday would take a huge chuck of funding from public transportation.
Additionally, this proposal by Senator McCain also runs counter to the public demand for more public transportation. Last year 10.3 billion trips were taken on public transportation – the largest ridership number in fifty years. At a time when more and more Americans are using public transportation to beat the high cost of gas, the federal government needs to increase its investment in public transportation. If instead, the gas tax was suspended for the summer, it would eliminate $1.4 billion of federal funding for public transportation and severely restrict the industry’s ability to add and improve transit services for a growing number of Americans.
$28 for you, $1.4 billion cut from public transportation systems.
At a time when gas prices are insanely high, the last thing we need to do is cut funding for public transportation. If anything, McCain should be pledging to increase funding for public transportation, especially for rural communities. The APTA estimates that 60 million Americans living in rural communities have virtually no access to public transportation.
Many people in rural communities live in them because they can't afford to live in cities. They are the people who are most hurt by this spike in gas prices. The high gas prices makes it more difficult for them to get to doctor's appointments or to go shopping for basic necessities that they don't have access to within their communities.
I am part of one of these rural communities and have been fighting to get some kind of public transportation system into our community. What these people need isn't a gas tax holiday, they need access to commuter busses to get them into the cities. Cutting the gas tax even for a few months puts us further away from acheiving this goal.
McCain's tax holiday will not do enough to help people. If anything, it will increase dependence on driving, and therefore foreign oil, by reducing much needed funding for public transportation. Hmm... a republican doing something that could actually help the oil companies in the long run? Nah... no way that was intentional.
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I spent a year living in Germany, as an au pair, from 2000 - 2001. The entire time I was there I never drove once, and I travelled all over the country. In the seven years since I have been back home, there literally has not been a single day that I didn't miss that awesome public transportation system. It is imperative that our country catch up in this area.
I think a lot of law makers don't realize how many Americans do not have access to public transportation. They spend all their time on the east coast and take it for granted.