Definition of "off road", AgJudge.

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

"Your " Off Road " equipment is on the Road 3 % of the time but does 83 % of the damage."

Do you have some credible and verifiable basis for that statement or are you just making it up for the sake of arguing?

What about bicycles, very big in Johson county and in many cities.  I don't think they pay any taxes at all for their use of the road.  Signage, law enforcement, curbs and other issues are influenced by their use so shouldn't they pay some?

How about the electric vehicles and the hybrids?  Do the Amish with theri horse and buggies, which around Kalona mean a very wide shoulder that they use, pay taxes for the roads?

The Universtiy of Iowa recently conducted a study that raised the question of putting a GPS in every vehicle and using mileage as a basis for taxation.

I support the increased 10 cents road tax, partly because it invites Indiana and Colorado vehicles passing through to help pay for the roads we built.  Otherwise, we Iowans would have to pay for roads others used at a reduced rate.  Could one say that the road benefited the general public so all should pay for it?  Then get rid of gas taxes all together.

Obviously, it's possible to gore many oxen on this issue.  I support it and I emailed my state senator and representative before the vote.

The next thing to raise is to figure out how to get bicyclists to accept the responsibilitiy to drive according to the law and safely.  Fat chance.  (I've ridden in three RAGBRAI and completed one, so dont' say I am anti-cyclyist)

[NewAgJudge]

As damaging as  bikes are too roads, I dont think it is an issue.

But we e don't have any cyclists around here because of the pig farms would choke them to death.

Clean oxygen is required to feed muscles to peddle.

Even if they did dare to risk the air, their bike would plummet into a giant pothole created by the millions of loads of pigs and feed going by all day long.

The days of agricultural  privilege will come to an end.

[Geniusfarms]

Judge why do you think we run tracks and dual 800 metrics for?  Well then home heating is hauled on the road so lets put a road tax on home heating fuel right ?  How about the earth moving industry ? The construction industry that hauls the equipment down the road? Where does this mental madness stop. Its not farm machinery its the semis of which i pay road tax on when clear diesel is delivered to my farm. Well with that mentality when a loaf of bread is 12 dollars and your siting at the table feeding your face dont complain about food prices. BECAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR  !!!!!!

[k-289]

Lets put logic to work here - 8000 gallon slurry wagon + 4 wheel drive  -  4000# car  or  250#+ driver & bicycle   - hummm wonder which one might have the most impact ? ?

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Around here, bicycles are the specific reason some roads are widened and then marked with bicycle lanes.  But, they pay no tax at all for the expense of widening the road.  Pretty good deal if you can get it.

[k-289]

Agreed - although replacing bridges in a township budget to accomidate 100,000 + rigs is the same analogy as the bicycle folks - responsability shunned by both parties ---     

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Grain trucks can run pretty close to that weight each fall legally.  These are farm to market roads.  A 100,000 lb bridge seems logical to me.

[k-289]

Funding the  100K  replacement bridge project is the problem ---

[Geniusfarms]

Up here in Nw Iowa they quit the high priced bridges and went to cement box culverts for bridges where the cost is way less than half or large steel pipe if flow is less. It was us farmers that came up with the idea !

[r3020]

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@NewAgJudge wrote:

Your " Off Road " equipment is on the Road 3 % of the time but does 83 % of the damage.

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Drive an 80,000lb semi into a soft field along side a combine or tractor and see which one makes the deepest tracks and does the most damage.