Gas Tax, Ctd

Here's the biggest problem with gas taxes: it causes the government to incentivize driving in order to increase gas tax revenue. The point of a gas tax would be to reduce net miles driven by taxpayers. Yet that would cause a decrease in net gas tax revenue, which would be caustic to government coffers. Therefore, the government would have a fiscal interest in tax payers continuing to drive.

With a gas tax in place, a city would be very smart to scatter its tourist attractions willy nilly around the perimeter of the city, and then not connect them via mass transit. This would force tourists to drive to these attractions and subsequently buy gas. Citizens of the city would be unaffected for the most part, because the tourist traps are not the same as their places of work.


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