Income Payroll Tax: This is the direct payroll tax Oregon charges an individual income earner.
Inferred Income Tax: This is the payroll tax in excess that is spent on roadways, etc, that is then utilized by transit. This is an extremely small percentage, but since I’m attempting to be as thorough as possible, I’ve included it. I’ve used 3% since that is about the average budgeted over the last couple of years (excluding the massive bail outs, etc, from this year so far).
Federal Income Tax: This is the part of the income tax that is spent on transit, then the percentage allocated to Oregon and specifically Portland. Yeah, again, not that big of a number.
The Government Incurred Debt on My Behalf: This is cost that goes above and beyond the above collected taxes. This is the money the Government is inflating through the usage of uncollected funds, also known as “printing money” to spend. Which then we will owe at some point in the future unless the Government defaults on all the borrowed money. In the past it has been about 10% of what is already incurred via income taxes. This year (2009) we’ve incurred approximately $300 per person that will go to transportation, which I did not place below as I’m assuming it will eventually average out again in the future.
Fare Payments: This includes my monthly pass, any extra passes I had to buy such as when I forgot to get a monthly pass.
Totals
| 35k Yr Income | 45k Yr Income | 80k Yr Income | 110k Yr Income | |
| Income Payroll Tax (0.6718) | $235.13 | $302.31 | $537.44 | $739.98 |
| Inferred Income Tax (3% of 9.5%) | ($3,325) $99.75 |
($4,275) $128.25 |
($7,600) $228.00 |
($10,450) $313.50 |
| Federal Income Tax (15% of 3% of 25% to 28%) | ($8,750) ($262.50) $39.37 |
($11,250) ($337.50) $50.63 |
($20,000) ($600.00) $90.00 |
($28,400) ($852.00) $127.80 |
| Government Incurred Debt | $26.25 | $33.75 | $60.00 | $85.20 |
| Fare Payments | $1032 | $1032 | $1032 | $1032 |
| Totals | $1432.50 | $1547.04 | $1944.44 | $2298.48 |
Some of the things we can learn from this information. Nobody pays a full cost of their transit usage, not even the person making $110k per year. The extra costs are distributed among the other 90%+ of tax paying citizens, who pay at the rate above REGARDLESS of whether they ever use transit. The same situation of course goes for automobiles which I’ll cover those costs, out of pocket and taxes, in a future entry.
Looking at this though, it really makes one wonder what it would be like if we paid the actual cost of usage just within the city; LRV, Bus, Streetcar, at our current rate of tax & available disposable income it would be rough even for the 80-110k income earner to afford transit, let alone automobile transportation.
Stay tuned for more of this wealth redistribution for transportation story, I’ve got a lot more research coming down the pipeline.
Transit Sleuth 