Jerry Seib

speaker

47 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Mar 2019 last heard Mar 2019

Jerry Seib’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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WSJ Your Money Briefing · Hate Potholes? Would You Pay a Higher Gas Tax to Fix Roads? · 21 Mar 2019 podcast

It certainly helps that the Trump administration very much wants to do a big infrastructure package.

And it helps that the administration has at least left the door open to supporting a gas tax increase.

President Trump has said some favorable things about it in the past.

His Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin just this month before Congress said, well, we want to talk to people in the Congress about this idea.

So that door is open, and I think that creates some hope among those who want this to happen.

That's true.

Although, you know, the reality is that no matter where the gas price is, when you tell people they're going to have to pay more, some at least are going to be unhappy about that.

But other people

support this idea.

And here's one sign of that.

There have been 39 states that have increased their own fuel taxes in recent years because part of the bill for fixing roads and bridges falls on the states, not just the federal government.

And the people who voted for those increases have, by and large, survived to tell about it.

I saw some statistics today that more than 90 percent of the state legislators who have voted to increase gas taxes in their states in recent years have been reelected after having done so.

There is some reason, some sign that you can point to if you're simply worried about the politics of this to say you can vote for an increase in gas taxes and not have your political life come to a bitter end.

Well, that's true.

I mean, I live in Washington, and I'm certainly feeling it every time I drive in this city, and I know it's true all over the city.

You know, it's worth noting that there are the immediate problems, there are long-term problems, bridges that have been falling into disrepair for years.

But also, it's worth noting that even if this happens, if there's a gas tax increase and a big bill to fix the nation's roads, bridges, and by the way, transport, transit systems in bigger cities as well,

There's still a lot more of an infrastructure need, or at least most people would agree there is.

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