[ilamont]

Eastern Mass resident here. Thanks for sharing this. I wish our elected officials were so transparent with these basic facts when they discuss road improvement projects.

In my city we pay a negligible “excise tax” on our vehicles. It’s like $100 for 2 older cars. If it were doubled or even tripled in think most people could afford it. This would seem to be the logical way to pay for road improvements, or a municipal gas tax.

Yes, people would skirt it (there already is a problem with people’s registering their cars in New Hampshire to avoid the excise tax, or driving over state lines to buy gasoline). But if even 80% of residents paid the taxes, it would make a real difference to municipal budgets for fixing roads.