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Tennessee suspends short line infrastructure funding
Looks like Tennessee is shooting themselves in the foot!
So who in the trucking and highway construction industries knows the governor?
In theory, at least, road fuel taxes support all road users. If I understand the issue, the diesel tax apparently funded infrastructure that benefited only certain railroads - the short lines - not all railroads passing through the state. The state’s action does not strike me as unfair.
I can’t wait for the escapee to explain this one.
The railroad cries because the state has it paying into a railroad infrastructure trust fund for short lines at the rate of 7%. Then turns around and claims other modes don’t pay any taxes? News flash for the uninformed: Trucking companies pay fuel taxes, IFTA tax, assorted state taxes, and other taxes which can easily fill a 3 ring binder. So don’t give me this garbage that trucking companies don’t pay any taxes, which is nothing more than a railfan’s wishful thinking, ranking right in there with the diesel killing the steam locomotive conspiracy.
Unless you are economically libertarian and comprehend that no business pays taxes. All taxes on business are passed along to the consumer, one way or another.
On the other hand, the only valid claim here is Railroad A has to pay into a trust fund to finance Railroad B, of which Railroad A receives no benefit. This is government imposed redistribution of wealth. Welcome to socialism. Railroad A should have used this instead of claiming other modes don’t pay taxes.
As for the valid claim that fuel taxes at the pump fall short of paying for the highways, that is correct. The reason why is the the national highway trust fund has been turned into the national highway slush fund, to be used to finance other modes of transportation.
I concur with Mr. Hallam’s comments. Also, I believe CN, which filed the lawsuit, has only one of the affected short lines connecting with it, the TENNKEN Railway in Dyersburg. CN may view that it’s subsidizing short lines that provide traffic to competitors CSX and NS. Then again, CN/IC is probably a very distant third compared to what CSX and NS pay Tennessee for the tax on railroad diesel fuel.
Why do the class 1’s want the 20 or so short lines affected to wither and die from deferred maintenance when short lines provide the class 1’s with 40 per cent of their loads?
No problem…just shift funding from roadways to railways. This is only fair as government funding of highways was partly generated by taxing railroads. Hence the decline and demise of the 248 mile Tennessee Central.
Can’t blame CN for wanting equal footing with the trucking industry.
Forcing one railroad to pay into a tax fund to improve a competitor’s infrastructure sounds like like something from “Atlas Shrugged” to me. (Wasn’t that book partly about a railroad?)
If the “at the pump” method works for highways and truckers, why not use the same method for rails and trains? Only hitch is fact that at the pump taxes for autos/trucks/buses fall woefully short of paying for the highways so billions come out of the general tax base for roads/rest stops/etc. Maybe someone should initiate a class action style suit against funding for highways using money not generated by fuel taxes and user fees. Yea right!
That is Tennessee for you! Unlike the railway progressive neighbours, Virginia and North Carolina.
EVERYBODY in the trucking and highway construction industry knows our governor. His family owns Pilot/Flying J.
That’s right, Guse. The trucking companies pay taxes; which, unfortunately, don’t come anywheres close to what it costs to provide and maintain the infrastructure they use. So, in the end, John Q. Taxpayer pays for the shortfall; and we end up subsidizing their business. But we all know that already, don’t we?
To the Moderators: Can you please add a way to filter out posts from users who never have anything useful to say ? Actually if you could do it based on keywords (socialist, socialism) that would work too.
Our pseudo intellectual is at it again. Why don’t you advocate all streets, roads, highways become privatized
. There fore every time some one wants to use it, he or she will nave to pay a toll. I betcha you will be the first one to cry about it, Goosie. I suppose you don’t mind all these road clogging hydrocarbon spewing trucks impeding your way while you try to go from point A to point B
To those that are annoyed by the vitriol or spamming by certain individuals, please email the magazine about them. I’ve already done so for two individuals so far. I haven’t seen any action, but more people might give them better notice.
I agree on filtering some of the "irrelevant comments “. I complained about this some time ago, but it didn’t do much good.
I sure hope some of these people don’t find out that I voted for the Socialist party in the last election. (How’s that for an irrelevant comment”.
I love the way that when railfans read a comment that doesn’t agree with their way of thinking they want to ban that individual from making any comments. I think Goose is right. Socialism, or even nazism, reins in the railfan world. This is a free country (at least for the time being) if they publish comments from one point of view then they have to publish comments from the other points of view too. If they don’t then this whole comment section has to be taken down. Get over it.