Does anyone have any info on this?
Does anyone have any info on this? It says there's something in budget legislation for homeland security where they'd charge Canadians a fee to come to the US? If that's true, then I'd have to say it sounds like a really poorly thought out idea.
Originally shared by Allison Cutler
If you have to pay to cross the US/CANADA border
Would it change your mind about visiting the US?
Would that shopping deal or filling up your gas tank with less expensive gasoline look a little less attractive if you needed to pay a toll (potentially both ways) just to get there?
For me, I would probably not go over the border as much as I do now - which would in turn save me a lot of money because really I just go there to shop ;-)
What's your opinion on the potential toll?
http://www.660news.com/2013/04/21/will-canadians-have-to-pay-a-fee-to-enter-the-u-s/
Originally shared by Allison Cutler
If you have to pay to cross the US/CANADA border
Would it change your mind about visiting the US?
Would that shopping deal or filling up your gas tank with less expensive gasoline look a little less attractive if you needed to pay a toll (potentially both ways) just to get there?
For me, I would probably not go over the border as much as I do now - which would in turn save me a lot of money because really I just go there to shop ;-)
What's your opinion on the potential toll?
http://www.660news.com/2013/04/21/will-canadians-have-to-pay-a-fee-to-enter-the-u-s/
So, this doesn't say if the item was part of the Senate budget, the House budget or the President's budget. Doesn't really matter though since it will be at least 20 months until any budget makes it through Congress.
ReplyDeleteMatt Schaefer True. Although, I guess since the process is so long, if you are going to put together an effort to change stuff like that, you have to be paying attention so you're ready and present when it comes up.
ReplyDeleteIt's not from the Senate Budget. It's not from the House Budget. It's from the DHS budget request for 2014, which I believe means it's part of the White House budget proposal, which in recent years the Senate and House have tended to use as toilet paper.
ReplyDelete("Dear Mr. President. We sit in the smallest room on Capitol Hill, your budget before us. Soon, it will be behind us.")
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2014/assets/dhs.html
Moreover, it's in the 2014 budget request as a study proposal:
_SEC. 544. (a) The Commissioner of the United States Customs and Border Protection shall:
(1) conduct a study assessing the feasibility and cost relating to establishing and collecting a land border crossing fee for both land border pedestrians and passenger vehicles along the northern and southwest borders of the United States; the study should include:
(A) the feasibility of collecting from existing operators on the land border such as bridge commissions, toll operators, commercial passenger bus, and commercial passenger rail;
(B) requirements to collect at land ports of entry where existing capability is not present; and
(C) any legal and regulatory impediments to establishing and collecting a land border crossing fee; and
(2) complete the study within 9 months of enactment of this Act._
And my understanding is, a similar fee is collected every time someone crosses the border by air or sea, it's just bundled into the price of the ticket. (Canada and Mexico have an on-again, off-again exemption or reduction to that fee, which as of last year is set to "off".) It's on the order of five bucks, which is about what I would pay to get into and out of Chicago on the El if I didn't have a student pass. Less than what I pay to get out and in via the Skyway.
No actual dollar amount is attached to the study that I know of, but there's no reason to expect it would be drastically different than the charge applied to other methods.
I personally think it's a bad idea.
I also think the freakout to be generated will be all out of proportion to the reality.
FYAGR
ReplyDeleteLol, thanks. It's playing poorly in a few quarters up here, although some people have pointed out that it's already on the plane tickets, but far more people drive back and forth every day than ever fly. I wonder if they will simply make it a border crossing fee, so anyone has to pay $5 each time they cross. If it's per car, that wouldn't be huge, but if it's per person, people might balk. If it's only on Canadians coming into the US, that would be a poor PR move, if nothing else.
ReplyDelete