A gas tax for transit

is proposed by Dan Bailey of Wheaton, Illinois, in a letter to the editor of the Chicago Daily Herald:

My friends, we have to fix the transit/transportation mess in Chicagoland and unfortunately it will cost money -- ours. We need transit for our economy to thrive. It is both effective and efficient and costs less in time, environmental impact, lives and dollars than our current reliance on auto-based sprawl. Letting our current imperfect but workable transit system go under will cost lots in the long run.

What about a gas tax dedicated to transit? I know, nobody wants to pay more for gas. That strategy was proposed and rejected as too costly when gas cost 30 cents per gallon. Yet we are already paying $3 per gallon and could soon pay more, totally at the mercy of the oil giants. Also consider that Europeans pay about $5 per gallon.

The fact is that we have been subsidizing gas prices. We don't pay at the pump for the environmental and health costs of burning fossil fuels or for the two naval fleets it takes to protect our imported oil supply or the thousands of lives and over $1 trillion for the Iraq war (at least partly started over oil).

For just our northeastern Illinois area, I want to propose a gradual change that will allow us to finance and improve our transit system, which would provide an alternative to the auto and which would move us toward freedom from the oil exporters.

Why not start with a small amount, such as 5 cents per gallon, and raise the rate every six months until we have enough to support transit on an ongoing basis? We would still need to decide how best to save and improve our transit system, but we would have a workable funding solution.

Chicagoland is facing major cuts in transit provision, See "Transit cuts again loom" from the Chicago Tribune.