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counts police protection since he includes it as a separate

cost item.

Second, the vast majority of "general tax revenues"

goes for local neighborhood streets, not highways, and about

a quarter of those revenues comes from property taxes.  It

is reasonable to expect local homeowners to contribute to

the streets and sidewalks in front of their houses because

they will use them whether they drive or not.

Third, $5.8 billion of the $21.3 billion cited by

Goddard is not paid out of general tax revenues but is

interest earned on investments of highway user fees before

they are spent.13  Since Goddard is quick to charge highway

users for interest on bonds (so quick that he double counts

them, as shown below), it is hardly fair that he counts

interest earned on user fees as a subsidy to highways.

Fourth, Goddard and his source, a World Resources

Institute study, overlook the fact that a considerable

portion of highway user fees is diverted to nonhighway

activities, such as state general funds, mass transit, and,

since passage of ISTEA, federal deficit reduction.14  If

those fees are put back on the revenue side of Goddard's

calculations, the so-called subsidy is reduced.  In 1989

nearly $7 billion in highway user fees was diverted to other

uses.15  After ISTEA that amount ballooned, and in 1995

diversions reached $21.5 billion.  That more than offset the

$21.4 billion in non-user-fee taxes that went into highways

and streets in 1995.16

Police and Safety Services, Highway Administration,

Interest and Debt Service.  Goddard is double counting here.

All of these costs are included in the amount spent on

highways ($71.2 billion in the year Goddard uses, $92.5

billion in 1995).  Hence, all of these costs are covered by

highway user fees or by the other offsets.

Loss of Tax Revenues from Free Parking.  Goddard says

that employers should charge their employees to park and pay

them extra rather than just give them free parking.  But if

employers did that, the federal government would collect

taxes on the additional pay given to employees to cover

parking costs, reducing the so-called subsidy.

This is a specious argument at best.  Employers do not

charge employees for use of office space or office Christmas

parties.  They often cover the cost of health insurance and

pay for other nontaxed benefits.  In any case, a benefit

given by an employer to an employee cannot be considered a