British newspapers report that President-elect Barack Obama (D) may import congestion charging programs from the UK. Jack Opiola, a transportation principal for the firm Booz, Allen and Hamilton, was hired to design a program to tax drivers at least £5 (US $8) when entering the city of Manchester during peak hours. Opiola told the Manchester Evening News yesterday that the president-elect’s transition team approached him for additional details on the plan.
“I was ‘noticed’ by key people in the Obama campaign and I have been providing input to his strategy team in Chicago, including information about Greater Manchester’s bid,” Opiola said.
If approved in a referendum later this month, drivers entering an 80 square mile section of Manchester would be subject to the charge. The program would generate £120 million (US $180 million) in annual profit. A similar program in London cost drivers £268 million (US $408 million) and failed to provide promised reductions in congestion, according to Transport for London data (view report).
Until now, Senator Obama has been circumspect when discussing his administration’s transportation plans. Previously, his most specific proposal was the creation of a $60 billion toll road bank (view details). In March, Obama endorsed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s idea to charge a $9 toll on cars and a $22 toll for trucks that enter downtown Manhattan during working hours.
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Hoping to fill the gap with specifics, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) last month submitted a detailed $544 billion transportation reauthorization proposal designed to encourage the new administration to shore up the domestic economy with heavy spending on infrastructure projects. The new programs would be paid for with massive new tax hikes, including a per-mile driving tax that would begin with “proof of concept” trials as early as 2010. The tax would initially be one cent per mile and generate $32.4 billion a year. An extra one cent per gallon in the federal gasoline tax would generate another $1.8 billion, and a national sales tax on cars of one percent would generate $7.6 billion.
“With this historic election, AASHTO is optimistic that the new administration can help to foster the political will necessary to bridge the gap between today’s transportation needs and the transportation system we must build for tomorrow,” the group said in a statement.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Nice, real nice…….. Now it is going to cost us to drive our cars! Not like we don’t have enough to pay for with them! Hope the big executives at big the big oil companies are fun with all the money they made durring the summer! LOL!
November 13th, 2008 at 6:29 am
that is what alex has been talking about-it starts in one city-2 years later-nationwide-boycot the cities-say hell no-onstar-just two more piecies of silver-the breaking down of america and the new rise of the europeon empire-god save the queen———————————–
November 13th, 2008 at 6:30 am
these added taxes will be passed on to the consumer as is always the case.
just take my whole pay check, send me my rations and tell me which flag to salute…
November 13th, 2008 at 7:45 am
….soon we will all be riding bikes, and buses…and they will TAX that also..
…i concur with# 4, americafirst; we do need to STAND UP!
( oh i forgot the tents we will live in; that will be Property tax!)
November 13th, 2008 at 8:40 am
congestion filthy tax, milage filthy tax ???? i thought the globalists wanted to chase us out of the “mother earth” country and into the cities. these measures will have the opposite effect!!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm_xX1Ur43I
goldieshouse.piczo.com
November 13th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Well, if the infrastructure is there and it’s good, USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT. Why give money to the oil mafia? Folks who have good public transit available but prefer to enrich the filthy S.O.B.s who brought us Iraq and Afghanistan deserve to be punished.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:11 am
What in the hell man, how is it just us being outraged at this. Truckers getting charged 22 dollars that just means the product they are delivering will go up money as well and if they dont get extra money they strike making us normal folks SOL. That doesnt matter to them though because they are all beyond rich and they have theirs, it’s designed to keep us down as usual
November 13th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some more
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
And you’re working for no one but me.
November 13th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
You could have read this article on your HDTV with http://www.freedomonmytv.com!
November 13th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
americafirst,
You’re dead on with that one. If it is only a small handful of people, they will just have the ‘police’ handle it. No news, no martyrdom, no story, no nothing. Small coups will just be swept under the carpet. The only thing they will understand as a revolt is a massive civil unrest. If there are hundreds of thousands of ‘unrested’ people all at once, then there can be no indication of a certain martyr. In this case ALL of us would be martyrs. But even then, most people are chickenshit. They would rather just wave flag or vote or something else that requires little to no effort. Surveys have shown that 70% of the populous thinks Obama can ‘fix the economy’. If this be the case then most of our own citizens have turned their back on us bretheren. But like I said, only a mass uprising will make a statement. If the sheep see what’s going on after this, then maybe, just maybe, they’ll wake up…
November 13th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Great another GD TAX!
November 14th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Thats so BS. People in this economy will not be able to afford that. Riots are inevitable in a high tax climate.
Go to http://www.petitionright.com to join a civil revolution, reforming the ballot initiative process by outsourcing the costs of ballot access, with the strength of our numbers, and our ideas.
remember “the ballot or the bullet!” Goal 2012 national reform. Lets kick the governments ass at changing public policy this year!
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