That big old corporate tax cut that's making so many CEOs so obscenely rich doesn't leave a whole lot for things like the transportation infrastructure. Never fear, though, House Republicans have an insane fix: tax all the things that take cars off the road.
And yes, that includes bicycle tires. In addition to the 10 percent tax hike on those tires—for adult bikes alone, apparently—Republican Bill Shuster, chair of the House Transportation Committee is also pushing a hike to the gas tax of 15 cents per gallon over the next three years, and impose fuel taxes on transit agencies.
But it's the taxes on bicycles and transit that make this bill a joke, giving Republicans just one more chance to "own the libs" and their crazy conservationist ways. That bicycle tire tax is estimated to raise, get this, $15 million a year by 2021. That might replace a bridge, somewhere. But it'll sure make all those Republicans who are pissed off that they have to share a street with a bike lane feel like they've achieved something.
That's ridiculous, but the tax hikes on transit agencies is real. Since 1978, transit agencies have been exempted from federal fuel taxes, but this bill would end that exemption: "Transit agencies running diesel buses would have to start paying the existing 24.5-cent per gallon diesel tax, plus the 20-cent hike on diesel as well. Agencies operating diesel trains would also be newly subject to a smaller 4.3-cent per gallon tax."
The American Public Transit Association reports that transit agencies used 603 million gallons of diesel fuel in 2017, meaning this tax would cost them in excess of $200 million annually, for diesel alone. That would undoubtedly result in service cuts and fare hikes for most of the transit operations in the country. And would undoubtedly put more cars on the roads. Which would create more wear and tear that needs to be fixed, without even taking into consideration the environmental costs.
Shuster says this is necessary because "a number of surface transportation system users do not currently pay into the system, even though they benefit from it." Like bicyclists, those free-riders. Using the roads like they owned them or something.