Lucius Riccio and Dan Feldman in their commentary ("Done right, gas tax hike means jobs," June 10) propose a rather novel idea: Increasing New York's gas tax a dime a year for five years, returning the revenue to the county where it was paid, and letting county government determine how to spend it.
Most gas tax advocates — and I count myself among them — have just taken for granted that gas tax proceeds should go to transportation, applying the "user fee" principle. However, in Europe, gas taxes go to a general fund, similar to a sales or income tax here.
It strikes me that a political battle to increase the gas tax would be compounded by breaking the user fee link — or would it?
It would be interesting to find out. Perhaps polling could be done.
Anything that makes raising the gas tax more palatable, which might incentivize more sustainable transportation choices, would be good for government, society and our environment.
Irvin Dawid
Burlingame, Calif.