Bush administration plans new barge fees

[Judi Lynn]

Bush administration plans new barge fees
By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer
22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to impose a new user fee on commercial barges to help pay for the soaring cost of maintaining the nation's river channels.

Barge operators say they already pay steep taxes to keep the Mississippi River and other waterways navigable.

The proposal, included in President Bush's $2.9 trillion budget proposal, does not specify how fees would be assessed.

"We'd like to explore user fee concepts, but we don't have a proposal that we're putting out yet," said John Paul Woodley, the assistant Army secretary who oversees the Army Corps of Engineers. "We want to hear what the industry people and the shippers have in mind."

Barge operators now pay a tax of 20 cents per gallon on diesel fuel, with the money going into a waterway trust fund. Half the cost of replacing and repairing the nation's massive system of locks and dams comes from that trust fund, while the other half comes from the Corps' general revenue.
(snip/...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070206/ap_on_go_pr_wh/budget_barge_fees

[Scooter24]

1. so instead of "raising taxes," they instead call it "raising fees"

[louis-t]

2. Idiot former Gov. John Engler (R-what else?) did that in MI

When he raised anything he called it "user fees". He spent years skipping around the state saying "I lowered 22 taxes, I lowered 23 taxes." What he did was run the state 4 bil in the red, then lied about it, then tried to hide it with creative accounting. Engler is a manufacturer, cut from the same cloth as the Amway idiot that ran against Granholm. His brilliant scheme was to give manufacturers huge tax breaks thinking it would keep them here. It did not. They left anyway.

[lakeguy]

3. same thing with our gov in mn...

and, he was elected to a second term, although he got less than 50% in both elections.

[karlrschneider]

4. It's a way to raise taxes without calling it that. Same crap proposed for aviation.

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/FY2008_Budget_User_Fees_194396-1.html

[donsu]

5. this is a move to kill barge work on the Miss. River so that it all will go on

the super highway.

the neo con plan is to have all incoming stuff to come in at Mex. ports. and then get transported north on the super highway.

that way they can bypass the unions at our western ports and now if they put Miss. river barge operators out of work it forces the use of the super highway.

(actually, climate change is lowering the amount of water feeding the Miss. and sometimes barges can't move because of shallow water. looks like two forces are against the bargers. climate change and the neo cons.)

[Bandit]

6. Raising transportation costs of America's goods means prices on everything

go up. It will not just raise costs on Barge owners. They will recoup the costs by raising freight rates which will be recouped by the retailer by raising prices. Also known as Inflation....