May 19, 2009
Oh... this is why indexing of the gas tax will fail...
No, it's not because it won't bring in enough money (it will... at least as long as we continue to use liquid fuels), in point of fact indexing the gas tax will actually fill the funding hole at TXDOT without raping tax payers and will help control the prices charged by contractors since it will tie the funding to actual costs, not inflated prices.
But, alas, it won't pass, because of these folks: Texas Public Policy Foundation, Texas Eagle Forum, Texans for Fiscal
Responsibility, Americans for Prosperity, and the Free Market Foundation.
Legislation approved by the committee during the past 24 hours--House Bill 9 and Senate Bill 855--permits a 15-cent statewide increase of the gas tax within 10 years, as well as a new 10-cent-per-gallon local gas tax. This represents a potential 25-cent increase per gallon, on top of the current 20-cent gas tax--a whopping 125 percent increase within 10 years. While these measures require voter approval, the organizations listed above reject the flawed notion that requiring voter approval makes this measure acceptable.
Now, these groups are all about the crazy. For one thing, you can tell that's the case by the last sentence in which they decide that just because we, the voters, WANT this it's still not OK. They also seem to think there are endless streams of money available from the taxes we already pay and that, somehow, just eliminating waste will do the trick. Now, I won't argue there is waste in government... there is waste in ANY human endeavor, private or public. However, it won't give you enough money to do anything significant. Period. Cutting, say, $100 mn from the state budget just isn't going to get us a rebuilt 35 Freeway. Sorry. Actually, in Texas today, it really won't pay for much since many of our cities have larger budgets. That's like the budget for a 4A school district.
But thanks y'all for trying.
These groups all, at one point or another, supported privatization and toll taxes, which are the ultimate redistribution of wealth. Most of them still do, though we've heard that Cathy over at the Eagle Forum has found the light and decided that we shouldn't privatize. We'll definitely believe that when we see it. The reality, as most of these folks know but won't acknowledge, is that indexing the gas tax won't even restore the buying power the tax had in 1992. All it will do is keep it from losing value going forward. However, that hasn't stopped Peggy Venable from going for a dip in the deep end...
"These bills permit a 125 percent increase in the gasoline taxes paid by Texas drivers," said Peggy Venable, Director of Americans for Prosperity-Texas. "Legislators are holding onto the false notion that by requiring voter approval they are absolving themselves of the reality that this permits a colossal tax increase that is going to impose a tremendous burden on Texas families and businesses.
That's still better than the 1000% increase that tolls and privatization will give us. Oh, and just for Peggy, a little lesson in inflation... If you tax something at a constant rate (say, I don't know, 18 cents per gallon of gasoline) inflation will eventually eat up the spending power represented by that 18 cents. Basically, the entity receiving the tax money loses buying power and the consumers paying the tax actually see the tax, as a percentage of their income, DECREASE.
All indexing the gas tax is going to do is hold the value of the tax stable so that TXDOT can actually build some roads and taxpayers won't get drowned paying more than $1.00 per mile in toll taxes.
As for allowing the locals to decide their tax rate, these folks are scared to death that their anti-tax screeds are finally beginning to smell like the bullshit from which they are made. Most people aren't anti-tax, they just don't want their money wasted. Like it is on 39%'s slush fund which, it should be noted, is supported by these folks and is pulling taxpayer money away from far more necessary objectives. Now, you have to ask yourselves, why these folks all have their panties in a twist over a minor increase in the gas tax which won't even restore it to the spending power it had in the 1990's and not upset at all about 39%'s slush fund which has done dickall to create jobs in this state.
I'm sick of so-called public policy groups that fall over themselves to screw tax payers and try to hide their agendas (and those of their masters) behind a facade of caring about the people of this State who, year after year, get screwed by the bad ideas they shill for. And I'm sure as hell not going to listen to an asshat like Peggy Venable who has never even had a real job to speak of, at least not one in private enterprise. All I could find about her was that she's spent most of her life working in government in positions that were, wait for it, funded by taxpayers. The same government she says is too big and intrusive. I wonder if it was when she was a part of it.
Finally, EOW reminded me of this post about the gas tax vs. toll taxes. I also wanted to point to some of the pieces we've done on TXDOT's funding gap projection (the difference between money available for infrastructure vs. the needed project costs). As this debate has gone on, year after seemingly endless year, no one seems to be having the discussion regarding the politicization of TXDOT by 39% and their outright lies about their funding needs. I thought sunset would finally provide that opportunity but no one stepped up to have that discussion. So infrastructure, the most important issue in our state right now and the foundation of our economy, is taking a back seat to voter ID and the other petty, stupid and childish issues that folks like Peggy Venable are dumb enough to think are important.
Posted by mcblogger at May 19, 2009 10:54 AM
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