 SSidlovOther Things On My MindPremium
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Pompton Lakes, NJ
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Internet2 is gov't funded & gov't should lease network said by SteveLV702:Schmidt thinks the government should pay more of the rising infrastructure costs. "We didn't ask for private citizens to pay for the highway system up front," he said. He said it would be "great" if the U.S. government recognized the advanced position other countries have in providing greater broadband access to their citizens as a competitive threat leading to further investment here. This is a fine concept. But two warnings. One, state owned systems have a tendency to be censored, like those in the China, the middle east and elsewhere -- even the US internet is heavily regulated for content »www.isoc.org/inet97/proceedings/B1/B1_3.HTM and »www.efa.org.au/Issues/Censor/cens3.html . Let's do it like Korea. The government builds it to allow for 90% in excess capacity. They use 10% for their own purpose, and lease the excess on bids for $$ to recoup the initial investment, pay for maintenance and upgrades. Leases should not be for more than 10 years to make sure that the government is able to do the upgrades and that there is a possibility of change in management. Companies like Verizon and Quest who are building or already have fiber networks can sell them to the government for tax breaks or preferential bids but not 'sweetheart bids' (say they have to offer 90% of the highest bid) for the first 10 years, that will give us a start, and allow the phone companies and other carriers to 'come on board.'
This is the only way the government should be allowed to do this. The highway system in the US is falling apart and is always short of funds because it's based on trucking fees and gasoline taxes. While Trucking Fees are usage based, gasoline taxes are not since not everyone uses all the gallons of gas to drive on highways. Raising the gas tax is considered a political liability. All US highways should be toll roads, and the Federal Gas Tax repealed. Highways to no-other-state like those in Alaska and Hawaii could then be justified and alloted maintenance based on the actual usage.
"In April[2006], representatives of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Congressional Budget Office testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Highways, Transit, and Pipelines Subcommittee about the fund’s financial status. Current estimates indicate that the fund will probably become insolvent in 2009 or 2010, the witnesses said." »www.pubs.asce.org/ceonline/ceonl···eat.html
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Suffern, NY | said by SSidlov:The highway system in the US is falling apart and is always short of funds because it's based on trucking fees and gasoline taxes. While the non-toll road highways are only funded by these sources, the problem is that the funds collected by these taxes are treated as a slush fund due to not being DEDICATED to maintaining the highways (the same also may apply to Toll-Road revenues). In most cases, the majority of the funds collected gets diverted to the State's "General Fund" for uses having nothing to do with highway maintenance or building (I'll include maintenance of the Highway Police as a legitimate usage here). If the funds collected from the taxes were ONLY used for the highway uses (and the states were forced to return the embezzled funds to the Highway Fund) there were be enough money for the needed Highway Maintenance and Construction. |
