Arif Khokar > wrote:

>Jason Pawloski wrote:
>> On Jul 5, 12:27 pm, Arif Khokar > wrote:
>>> Bill wrote:
>
>>>> For those who weren't around for the original 55 law, it should be pointed
>>>> out that the law itself didn't change any speed limits outside of federal
>>>> property. Instead it coerced the individual states into lowering their speed
>>>> limits by threatening to withhold federal highway dollars for those that did
>>>> not comply. This is the same technique used to impose the 21-year-old
>>>> drinking requirement, among others. No state can be forced to lower their
>>>> limit by federal law, just "encouraged". So even if a federal law were
>>>> passed, there is always a faint hope that at least some state legislatures
>>>> will have some backbone, and not sell out their citizens for their 30 pieces
>>>> of federal gold.
>
>>> Not only that, but they could also stop collecting the federal gas tax
>>> (and lower the gas price a little bit).
>
>> Oooookay, I'm having difficulty understanding this. If you do not take
>> federal money for roads, you are off the hook for the federal gas tax?
>
>Well, if the federal government *refuses* to distribute funds to a
>particular state because they won't enact a specific law (55 mph limit,
>21 year old minimum drinking age, etc.), then why should the state
>continue to collect the federal gas tax?

Good luck with that, Arif; I'm sure that the government will see it
the same way as you do.

John Lansford, PE
--
John's Shop of Wood
http://wood.jlansford.net/