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Friends,
I hear that the price of gasoline may average $2.50 a gallon by the middle of the summer. My cargo van may be for sale. But my Ranger is too small. Whats the matter with this picture?
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What's wrong with that picture is that much of that $2.50 is taxes, to which they add sales tax, which we pay to have the privelege of driving through potholes you could lose a VW in.
*I don't mind pitching in my bitch on that note Wedgehead.Here in MI, we don't believe in spending any dollars on preventative measures to reduce the likelihood of potholes. Up until last year, all monies were spent to repair potholes, thus guaranteeing a new supply for next year. Our MDOT (the gov agency in charge of roads) needs tens of thousands of dollars to study intersections that need stop lights, instead of stop signs. A high school dropout could determine "need" in ten seconds just by looking at the hundred cars backed up in all directions. There is no dept of gov that can't find creative ways to waste our tax dollars. It drives me crazy when I think about it.I'm going to have to go back and start studying sports...blue
*$2.50, good God, I hope for my sake you're in CA and this is not a national adverage you're talking about.Made the smart move myself of buying a new very large truck with an also very large engine and 4WD just 20 payments...um months ago when here in the mid-south we were as low as ~.85c/gal. The steady rise has taken a bit of the fun out of newness.PB
*blue, you are absolutly right about the tax on gasoline. We are below the national average in price/gallon at about 1.50/ gal. The fuel tax increase that our govenor wanted last year was defeated in committee because of the jump in price at the time. Lucky citizens, huh. What frost me more than anything is the way the tax money is distributed back to the counties and what becomes of it after it gets back to them.The more densely populated counties ( richer) get the transportation tax dollars back based on the number of miles of county and state roads within the county just as the poorer counties do. The richer counties generally have some type of pubic roads department to utilize these funds for both maintenance and new construction. There is at least some sort of public accountability in these counties. The majority of the counties in this state don't fit in this catagory, so the transportation funds fall under the control of the county judge executive (an elected position). Only the roads that have political significance get repair or resurfaced on a regular basis. I've seen mobile home parks get paved roads durring an election year because there were more votes per mile of paving than in a large developement with $140,000+ propery values in them.Now if the prediction of higher gasoline prices come about, maybe it will forestall another increase in gasoline tax. Some trade off isn't it? Of course I am talking about KY where horses, whiskey, Ford, Toyota, and UPS rule.Dave
*Well maybe you should all move to Texas. Now that you republicans have put George the Younger in office maybe he'll be the "good ole boy" he is and give all us Texans gasoline for .29.9 like it should be.But God help you Northern boys. George the Younger may still be upset about the War of Northern Aggression. You know how those Rednecks are.Ed. Williams
*Maybe I should move to Texas. The utility company I work for lost 300 million $ furnishing ya'll power durring the draught a few years ago. Actually it was the energy holding corporation, not the subsidiary utility company. Of course we ate the big one on the deal because we lost a unit or two that was suppose to be furnishing the cheap power to wheel to Texas. I sure hope GW remembers how could we were to ya'll!None of that may matters now anyway,since the Brits. bought our a*s out.Dave
*Speaking of "Brits" how do those guys across the pond haul sheets of rock around in those little "two seaters" they drive?
*Room to spare in the MG, mate!fv
*I for one am not going to bitch about the price of gas, diesel or natural gas. They have all had to sit on there hands while the prices of everything have gone up. Most think that the utilities are some sort of entitlement deal. If you don't like it, don't use it. They were just waiting for us all to load up on suburbans, expeditions and excursions. Then they'll get the price out of the supplies to run em'. Seems to me a new pickup was about $9000 in 1980. That was a loaded 4x4 chevy silverado, today that same truck is about $28000. Is gas 3 time that price now? When they protect so much drilling land, what are the oil companies to do?
*Gas expensive? Gee, a quart of spring water is at least two bucks and they have no problem selling that!I say push the price to five bucks a gallon, put the taxes into public transit and give tax breaks to the industries (like ours) that need big vehicles. Screw the soccer moms, they don't need those trucks to go get their hair done and daddy doesn't need a 4x4 to go to the office.I was standing on my friend's front porch last weekend and I watched his neighbour load her kid into her Durango, drive it halfway down the block to another house and drop her off. Then she drove back home. I guess 'Little Princess' wasn't in the mood to haul her butt around on her own two legs. Maybe with real world pricing we can get urban sprawl under control too.
*When I filled up this mornong I noticed diesel was 6 cents HIGHER then high test. Seems very strange to me.
*I believe George the younger was born in Greenwich, CT.
*bobl, in answer to your tacit question about Diesel pricing:there is no sense to it. Diesel fuel costs MORE than Gasoline, per barrel of crude oil, because there is more demand for that 'part' of the crude (including Kerosene, Heating Oil, Jet fuel, etc.). It seems that the only reason why Diesel fuel has historically been cheaper than Gasoline has been due to the taxes put on the two fuels.This is also true in Europe.I kinda remember this stuff from school, but was reminded of it in Dennis Simathis' collumn in last month's Road & Track...
*Blue eyed devil has a point. He to apparently lives in southeastern MI. It' almost comical that Oakland County MI is one if not the richest county in the United States, yet our roads are probably the worst. It's funny to a person like me that the road commissions work force of complete morons will constantly be out there at the first thaw slopping there cheap asphalt mix into the ground knowing damn well that within a few hours, that the water they trapped in the pothole will freeze again and heave the patch(along with undamaged sections)right back out. Good use of the money don't ya think. I really feel we'd be better off with someone with half abrain in charge!
*Mark, a zip code in Oakland county boasts the second highest per captia income per household in the usa. But they still can't figure out how to seal a road. As soon as you leave mi and enter ohio, the roads are smooth. They seal their cracks.Go figure.blue
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Friends,
I hear that the price of gasoline may average $2.50 a gallon by the middle of the summer. My cargo van may be for sale. But my Ranger is too small. Whats the matter with this picture?