Today’s spring board comes from Greater Greater Washington’s article "Maryland transportation "lockbox" has a big hole" https://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/9163/maryland-transportation-lockbox-has-a-big-hole/
So my tangent piece: We all know about Sales Tax and how it helps pays for everything from education, police, fire and other emergency response systems as well garbage collection. And we all more or less agree that this is a necessity to help fund government. To abstract the concept GGW brings up, let’s say a bunch of big business got together and said "You know what, rather then pay sales tax, let’s pay a special interest fee that only we will benefit from. We could use the money to build an exclusive club houses for us and we could say that would help us do our jobs better and help Maryland economy."
That’s the problem in a nut shell with the Transportation Trust Fund, much of the fund comes from what should be in General Fund under regular conditions, calling these taxes "user fees" brings about a sense of self entitlement (roads should be for cars only and who cares what harm they do to "outsiders") and deprives other services provided by government much needed revenue. As more and more of our disposable income is being spent on cars, it should stand to reason that there is also a shift from taxes going into the General Fund now going into the Transportation Trust Fund.
The conclusion from GGW: "But ideas have consequences. The idea behind the lockbox amendment is that drivers pay for the roads they drive on. This idea is mistaken, but it’s widely held, and it’s an enormous obstacle to sensible transportation planning. The danger lurking in the lockbox is that this damaging misconception could be reinforced, making it even harder to correct failed transportation policies. "
If you are inspired, write your State reps and encourage sound transportation policies as well as sound fiscal policies and say no to the "lockbox" concept. https://mdelect.net/
Biking in Baltimore