From Seattle’s major newspaper:
Op-ed: Maintain state’s transportation network with a carbon tax
… Unfortunately, we don’t just have a transportation problem and a climate problem.
We also have a reality problem, a collective unwillingness to step up to the political plate and embrace comprehensive solutions. …
Our reality problem is evident in the environmental community as well. Many environmentalists argue that carbon-tax revenues should be dedicated to clean-energy programs, ignoring the economic value (not to mention the political value) of funding transportation maintenance.
The truth is that we’re all in this together. The business lobby can probably kill climate legislation. Environmentalists can probably kill transportation legislation. But if we work together we can make progress on both fronts.
And that’s not all. Only half of the revenue from a B.C.-style carbon tax would be needed for transportation investments. The other half could, as in B.C., go toward tax rebates that would improve economic competitiveness and help families and businesses adjust to the carbon tax.
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Why not just have a carbon tax like BC’s? no need to do further divying, just have it go to general revenue and have it even more simple to administrate. If you want to fund more transportation projects, just commit to that with your general revenue budget, carbon tax or not.
If a new administration in victoria commits to change the Carbon tax/HST, it will be interesting to see what happens all around…
I’m all for having parties work together to find creative, realistic solutions, but I’m growing a little weary of “tax rebates that would improve economic competitiveness and help families and businesses adjust to the carbon tax” sort of scenarios (if I am interpreting that correctly. If the state is willing to use its power to take money from some to bribe others into “better” behaviour, it should be willing to legislate more broadly things that would lead to better behaviour.