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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Op Ed Piece Suggests Taxing Crude Oil To Pay For Transportation

Here's one I haven't heard before: an opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press suggests levying a percentage tax on crude oil in order to fund hundreds of billions of dollars of transportation improvements and shore up the depleted Highway Trust Fund.

Gas taxes currently support the Trust Fund, but are dwindling because new technology has improved gas mileage, translating to less taxes paid for gas. The tax is bringing in less that what the government is paying out for transportation, so the Free Press writer says collect the tax at refineries and adjust the rate quarterly to account for changes in the price of oil.

What are your thoughts on this?

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