Ready for the new gas tax next week.

What is it 7 cents a gallon starting next week?

heard registration is jumping $70. True?

kingstonlake wrote:heard registration is jumping $70. True?

Yeah. If you can register this week for over a year.

Are you ready for the $0.02 1st class postage increase next month?

If you me they shouldn't have lowered it last year.

Floyd Robertson wrote:Are you ready for the $0.02 1st class postage increase next month?

If you me they shouldn't have lowered it last year.

I still have several hundred 15 cents stamps I haven't used yet, damn.

kingstonlake wrote:heard registration is jumping $70. True?

Seriously? Damn.

kingstonlake wrote:heard registration is jumping $70. True?

Republicans do this on a regular basis and people still blame democrats for increased cost of government.

kingstonlake wrote:heard registration is jumping $70. True?

That was part of the not quite enough road infrastructure bill passed and signed in 2015.

To GOP candidate's delight their political advisers got it right when they told the legislators running for re-election that the increased registration fee along with additional tax at the pump would be forgotten or ignored by media as old news in Nov '16.

Its a half assed bill that didn't address truck per axel weights od higher fees for heavy commercial vehicles. We will live with for decades because it can't be repealed or changed by petition. The GOP majority attached a spending measure to the legislation so it can only be repealed by the legislature.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/20/license-registration-renewal-fees-michigan/95519264/

BleacherSwill wrote:

kingstonlake wrote:heard registration is jumping $70.  True?

Republicans do this on a regular basis and people still blame democrats for increased cost of government.

But Democrats are stupid libs ruining the country or something.

Funny as hell - 1/2 the Dems in this thread complaining that R's raised taxes/fees to fix the roads and the other 1/2 complaining they didn't raise them enough.

We needed to increase the monies for road repairs for years but pols are reticent to make changes especially since No New Taxes became political dogma.

The per gallon tax had to be adjusted since we have more cars with better mpg. But for too many years the legislators in both parties refused to switch from the general sales tax to a dedicated fuel tax where the funds collected could only be spent in highway infrastructure. They liked the money collected at the pump going to the general fund so they could have control.
In addition there was never any inflation index adjustment. Without a time machine its hard to get bids that match the funding set 30+ years ago.

I thought we voted down this bullshit tax for the roads.

LooseGoose wrote:Funny as hell - 1/2 the Dems in this thread complaining that R's raised taxes/fees to fix the roads and the other 1/2 complaining they didn't raise them enough.

I'm only complaining that many just don't own up to the fact that they need to raise taxes to fix the roads. And I know why. They can't. We have too many ignorant votiers who vote based on building a wall or saying I'll not tax you or saying if I'm in there won't be abortions anymore because I'll appoint the supreme court justices that make it so. Politicians who want a huge pension, for little work and a couple of years on the job have figured out what our forefathers knew. That the general American public is beyond ill informed on what it takes to get things done. We are, collectively, and emotional group of zombies that are one issue voters or single party voters who can be lied to as long as it's our "party" that has lied to us. Then, we'll even make excuses for the person who has lied to us and will now legislate agaisnt our self interest.

Yay.

Now I'm moving this to the bin.

LooseGoose wrote:Funny as hell - 1/2 the Dems in this thread complaining that R's raised taxes/fees to fix the roads and the other 1/2 complaining they didn't raise them enough.

What will be funnier is when you and your family are trashing your vehicles because the same GOP yahoo's who call themselves conservatives that you and your Oscoda County neighbors voted for took a significant portion of when was revenue sharing has been taken away by the state legislature.

We needed higher fuel taxes for years. That fuel tax had been stuck for decades. We also needed the tax to be dedicated to roads like happens in WI and MN, two upper Midwest states who fund their roads through an at the pump tax bit doesn't go into the General Fund. MI still refuses to admit that its highest in the region axel weight makes a big contribution to road and bridge degradation. However admitting that would requre lighter loads of auto components getting to auto/truck assembly plants and despite what folks want to tell us MI is still beholden to Ford, GM and what's left of Chrysler plus Tier 1 suppliers who ship to Ohio, IN, IL and other places.

GRR Spartan wrote:

LooseGoose wrote:Funny as hell - 1/2 the Dems in this thread complaining that R's raised taxes/fees to fix the roads and the other 1/2 complaining they didn't raise them enough.

What will be funnier is when you and your family are trashing your vehicles because the same GOP yahoo's who call themselves conservatives that you and your Oscoda County neighbors voted for took a significant portion of when was revenue sharing has been taken away by the state legislature.

We needed higher fuel taxes for years. That fuel tax had been stuck for decades. We also needed the tax to be dedicated to roads like happens in WI and MN, two upper Midwest states who fund their roads through an at the pump tax bit doesn't go into the General Fund. MI still refuses to admit that its highest in the region axel weight makes a big contribution to road and bridge degradation. However admitting that would requre lighter loads of auto components getting to auto/truck assembly plants and despite what folks want to tell us MI is still beholden to Ford, GM and what's left of Chrysler plus Tier 1 suppliers who ship to Ohio, IN, IL and other places.

This is true.

Why is that though?

y2kMgrad wrote:I thought we voted down this bullshit tax for the roads.

y

We did. It was called Proposal 1 and the pols in Lansing got it on a May ballot. Most everyone knows its easier to get No votes out in elections that aren't for state wde or Federal elections.

Then we got too many issues added on. It added money for K-12, money to restore the earned ncome tax credit, money to go back to counties lost when revenue sharing formulas were changed.

GRR Spartan wrote:

LooseGoose wrote:Funny as hell - 1/2 the Dems in this thread complaining that R's raised taxes/fees to fix the roads and the other 1/2 complaining they didn't raise them enough.

What will be funnier is when you and your family are trashing your vehicles because the same GOP yahoo's who call themselves conservatives that you and your Oscoda County neighbors voted for took a significant portion of when was revenue sharing has been taken away by the state legislature.

We needed higher fuel taxes for years. That fuel tax had been stuck for decades. We also needed the tax to be dedicated to roads like happens in WI and MN, two upper Midwest states who fund their roads through an at the pump tax bit doesn't go into the General Fund. MI still refuses to admit that its highest in the region axel weight makes a big contribution to road and bridge degradation. However admitting that would requre lighter loads of auto components getting to auto/truck assembly plants and despite what folks want to tell us MI is still beholden to Ford, GM and what's left of Chrysler plus Tier 1 suppliers who ship to Ohio, IN, IL and other places.

Where did this "revenue sharing" $$ come from? It's not it magically appears and disappears.

I agree with you on the axle limits.

I disagree with you and others who claim MI has the worst roads. I've driven all over the US multiple times and our roads are a degree better than NJ - CT - NY - PA & MA. Of course many of the roads down south and out west are nicer because they don't face the combined weather/traffic issues that we do.

Revenue sharing monies going to the state through collection of fees and taxes from fuel sales , licenses etc that have been returned to the county by the state.  The 2015 hghway funding bill passed reduces that money going back and gives counties the option of instituting an additional tax to make up for the shortfall created by the new dstribution formula.  

Its not the first time revenue sharing has been messed with.  Its been a pinball for years with both parties.  Just ths time its written into law.  That's how it disappears.  Talk to your road commsioner and ask how he's planned over the last decade while he's budgeting without knowing what the state will send his department.

I drive 35k to 40k a year with 90% in MI.  I haven't said MI has the worst roads in the country.  I have said we are on our way to having the worst roads in the upper Great Lakes (IL,IN, MI, MN, OH AND WI).  MI, MN and WI don't currently have toll roads.....yet.

Biggest reason our roads have gotten ths bad is every governor and legislature since Milliken's last term have been kicking the road financing down to the next group.

As a group they had refused to reduce or elminate the sales tax levied at the pump and collected at each sale and implement a dedicated road/highway/bridge tax that would go specfically for road construction and infrastructure repair.  They wanted all that revenue to go to the general fund where they could parse it out as they see fit.  

The No New Taxes dogma frightened a bunch of legislators before and after term limits.  For years MI passenger vehicle tags were tied to weight rather than switching to vehicle value as other states had done.  MI DL's could have been increased incrementally but were locked in for too long.  Neither had inflation adjustments built in.

Its not that the fees and increased taxes weren't needed. Its in my opinion the bill only went to addressing one side of the issue. The trucking lobby fought and got no action on weight and got lower diesel fuel increases and lower increases in tags for tractors and trailers.