[DGthe3]

Wow, you really hate taxes that much eh? Look at it this way: the people that are causing the problem are providing the solution. Thats the principle behind this. Now, calling it a global warming tax or whatever they decided to call it . . . thats a bit much. But I completely agree with using gasoline taxes to fund mass transit. Because for every person that rides a bus is one less person causing trafic congestion. And traffic is a massive problem in places like LA. The more funding that mass transit gets the more its service can expand and the more effective it can be. If subsidising were pulled you would see a massive rise in the number of cars on the street. And that would cause much longer traffic delays and cause you to waste gas, costing you money anyway.

and an extra $0.09/gal is nothing. We pay around $4/gal in southern ontario and thats about as cheap as you will find in Canada, and its about $0.60 more than typical american prices. All that differance comes from taxes. In europe its much worse. The euros spend the extra money on mass transit and it has worked out great.

I have to get some of this off my chest:

I cannot get over how self centered Americans tend to be. Its all about the rights of the individual. Opposing mass transit funding and opposing health care because it will take your money and give it to someone else. What of the rights of the less fortunate? I am a student, I can't afford the time to have a job and I don't have the money for a car. Without public transit, living would be pretty difficult. Without tax payers helping out, mass transit would be either non existant here or extremely limited and fairly expensive. And so I would be forced to accept that because I am not in a situation where I can use a car. Could I manage? yes. But it would cost me an extra $10 to get groceries each week, just as one example. I would have to pay $50 to go home and see my family who live 2 hours away. to people with jobs, thats an annoyance. to someone who has an annual income of -$10 000 its a bit more important.

I'm sorry for the rant, I'm just one for the little guy. I don't want to hyjack this thread with an off topic debate. So please keep replys to the issue at hand.