I'm happier with your second point than your first. In particular, there are two things that I see as problematic in your approach:
This money goes directly to an infrastructure fund to be distributed to the states on a state-by-state lane-mile basis.
If only the world were this straightforward, but I can see this negatively impacting colder states in colder/rougher climes. It's a lot more expensive to fix and maintain roads in areas where the window of opportunity for construction is limited such as Alaska than in places like New Mexico where the temperature remains fairly stable. Roads that require regular plowing take a lot more damage than roads that don't.
This tax will decrease over time. From 2016-2020, it will be 50 cents per gallon. From 2021-2025, it will be 40 cents per gallon. From 2026-2030, it will be 30 cents per gallon. From 2031-until we are done using gas/diesel, it will remain at 20 cents per gallon.
Again, this makes some assumptions that I don't think are justified. How do we know that these levels will successfully cover costs? Shouldn't such reductions be implemented after review rather than set by a hard date regardless of conditions at the time?
Obviously, I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know what inflation will do. I don't know what oil prices will do. Paving prices are highly dependent on oil prices. I used 10 cent increments and 5 year increments because multiples of 5 and 10 are nice round easy numbers to look at. Were I to expend the effort to actually come up with a plan, I would do research and math to develop actual numbers. Maybe the initial years need to be a 73 cent per gallon tax that can be decreased by 10% to 66 cents per gallon in 2021, then decreased by 12% to 54 cents per gallon in 2024, then reduced by 13% to 47 cents per gallon in 2028, and so on. I just put down some nice round numbers that took me 30 seconds to come up with.
I'm happier with your second point than your first. In particular, there are two things that I see as problematic in your approach:
If only the world were this straightforward, but I can see this negatively impacting colder states in colder/rougher climes. It's a lot more expensive to fix and maintain roads in areas where the window of opportunity for construction is limited such as Alaska than in places like New Mexico where the temperature remains fairly stable. Roads that require regular plowing take a lot more damage than roads that don't.
Again, this makes some assumptions that I don't think are justified. How do we know that these levels will successfully cover costs? Shouldn't such reductions be implemented after review rather than set by a hard date regardless of conditions at the time?
Obviously, I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know what inflation will do. I don't know what oil prices will do. Paving prices are highly dependent on oil prices. I used 10 cent increments and 5 year increments because multiples of 5 and 10 are nice round easy numbers to look at. Were I to expend the effort to actually come up with a plan, I would do research and math to develop actual numbers. Maybe the initial years need to be a 73 cent per gallon tax that can be decreased by 10% to 66 cents per gallon in 2021, then decreased by 12% to 54 cents per gallon in 2024, then reduced by 13% to 47 cents per gallon in 2028, and so on. I just put down some nice round numbers that took me 30 seconds to come up with.