Meanwhile the rest of us who have not been taken in by the global warming con just sigh and wait for the inevitable backlash when the real truth does come out.

BB says more: I thought about it and for a while I was almost convinced, then I reviewed the anolog of the logrithnic antidorital metabolites and noticed it it didn’t match the periordital friorditals data from the zircon extension. Subsequently however, my eyes burst open and I saw the truth with the clarity of an aphorism…… after watching a shrill for Exon Mobil on Fox…..

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*Given to or marked by deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech

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Your not going to tell me how many cars/children I can have are you Frog… that would be cultural imperialism.

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Hey, where do you get this information from john-ston? Would be useful for those of us who are trying to lobby for improvements in Auckland public transport to have this sort of detail available to us!

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When the petrol tax was introduced in 1927 it was definitely intended as a user charge to pay for the development of a national highway system.

It could have been funded the same way as the development of the national telephone system but that would have meant tolls, but without the simplicity and convenience of being able to use existing staff at existing facilities to act as toll collectors. There would have to be hundreds or thousands of toll gates. Besides the government had just abolished the Taranaki toll-gates so it was hardly going to reintroduce them.

It could have been funded the same way as the development of the national electricity system but that would have required the invention of a tamper proof odometer. Had such a device been invented then it would have been easy enough to get the meters read at the post office every month.

Since neither of those options were viable the Main Highways Board concluded that since almost all of the roads that were to be included in the highway system were either dirt or gravel surfaced then the cost of maintenance would actually be dictated by the same factors that dictated fuel consumption, ie weight and speed. Therefore an excise duty on motor spirits collected by customs at the port of entry would be a simple, inexpensive and convenient means to raise the revenue needed to build and maintain a national highway system. Parliament agreed with the Board. The government also new that with farm incomes in a slump this “rates relief” would be a vote winner despite increasing the price of petrol from roughly $1.60 a litre to more than $2.

Unfortunately whilst this rates relief was sporadicly increased over the next 30 years there has been no increase in the last half century. That, IMHO, is an abrogation of parliament’s responsibility to provide good governance. It’s impossible to work out how much urban ratepayers are actually paying for roads and how much of that is for carriageways. It is actually possible that urban carriageways may be fully funded by cars and buses with ratepayers only paying for footpaths, streetlights, stormwater drainage and tree maintenance (or streetscaping as CCC refers to it). Rural ratepayers are definitely paying for carriageways, but mainly on roads where almost all the users are local ratepayers.

In support of my claim that the petrol tax is a tax in name but not in intent, here is the actual debate wherein the government and the opposition MPs state that this is so.
http://www.petroltax.org.nz/PDF/PetrolTaxResolutionDebate.PDF

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On some corridors (particularly Dominion Road, Great South Road and Great North Road), I even believe that bus services are set to reach saturation point, and of course if the buses and trains cannot cope with extra demand then we are screwed

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Irrespecticve if I used the road or not, I have paid my taxes to build/maintain it. It is not an individual cost. Your bus uses the same road so is included in your transport cost as well.

Your weekly transport charge is interesting. I commute from Manurewa to the North Shore every day. Admittingly missing peak traffic by leaving home real early 5.30 and returning at 2.00. (the joy of being self employed-choose the best work time) Travelling time is 20 minutes on a good day, usually 25 to 30 minutes (has been 2 hours on a really really bad day!). Door to door. No walking from a bus stop at either end. Distance is a shade over 60 kilometers return.

Cost is $50 per week. So for the extra $16 dollars I get individual freedom to go fishing, call in and do personal stuff anywhere along to way, or even go out of the way to see friends.

Plus can make deliveries and pick up raw materials as and when required. Something a bus is not suitable for.

Naturally it is a business related expense and thus tax deductable.

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In that case you are not paying enough tax, I propose that all those who walk pay an extra 3c in the dollar.

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Tread very carefully Greenies, the vast majority will not appreciate being reminded that fuel is going up, most have no choice but to pay whatever the price is, you run the very real risk of alienating them should you now start to lecture them about public transport.

Meanwhile the rest of us who have not been taken in by the global warming con just sigh and wait for the inevitable backlash when the real truth does come out.

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Of course a car is useful to get places public transport doesn’t go. But what the Greens are saying is that there should be fewer places public transport doesn’t go, giving people more journeys when they can leave their car at home.

As for cost, I travel from Glen Eden in Waitakere to Kingsland in Auckland return for work – at a cost of $34 a week on the train. When I used to drive it, in a similar sized car to yours, the fuel bill alone was more than that, and would be substantially greater now.

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