Look at what these dipsticks, Residents Action Movement (or appropriately RAM) are saying about road tolls.
"Tolls are a regressive tax that negatively impact on those who can least afford it. Workers, students and elderly people in Auckland travel long distances to work, education, healthcare and social activities. Tolls will add to their burden. Only those owning or managing businesses will be able to have their tolls paid for by their firms or the government and/or get tax write-offs on the tolls.
Road tolls are highway robbery. They steal income from the majority of society, and at the same time, they steal public ownership away from what will become market-driven highways. That's reactionary politics."
Auckland wants new roads or upgrades. Everybody will pay for this through their taxes. That includes people who use the roads very little or not at all, because they don't live in Auckland. If people paid directly for their road use they can adjust their behaviour accordingly. Those who will most profit from better roads i.e. in time saved transporting goods or getting to business appointments, are the high users who will pay the most.
As long as taxation for roads ceases, then user pays is fairer to all.
1 comment:
RAM think it is a World Bank, big business, central/local government big money conspiracy - I spoke to one of the RAM spokespeople a few times, and I think there are quite distinct paranoid schizophrenic tendencies.
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