STATES SNEAK GAS-TAX HIKES AS PRICES FALL
'This is their worst nightmare right now'
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Fracking rigs like this one have sprung up throughout the Dakotas, Texas, Pennsylvania and other states, helping contribute to lower gas prices along with slack demand in China and India.
Falling gas prices have been like an early, unexpected Christmas present for millions of motorists and working families.
With average pump prices about 60 cents lower than they were a year ago and a dollar lower than they were this summer, many families might find they’re able to put a few more presents under the tree this year.
But don’t get too excited.
Politicians in some states are already devising plans to play Scrooge and snatch the savings before they can even be fully realized.
Seeing the falling fuel prices as an opportunity, legislators and governors in several states are eyeing their state gas taxes as ripe for an increase.
As the theory goes, it’s better to raise the gas tax when prices at the pump are low, even if it’s just a temporary blip, so consumers won’t notice what has been done to them.
Republican governors in Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey, Utah and South Carolina are all pondering hikes in their states’ gas tax, while Democrat governors in Delaware, Vermont and Kentucky are also considering increases. In the case of South Carolina, the tax increase has been proposed by a Republican legislator but opposed by Gov. Nikki Haley.
North Carolina‘s gas tax is already set to increase by 1 cent in January while in California a new “carbon tax” will add at least 15 cents to the cost of each gallon of gas starting in 2015.
The federal gas tax hasn’t gone up in 21 years, many state officials complain, so they will have to raise the money themselves through state taxes if they are going to fix “crumbling roads and infrastructure.”
American drivers on average use 60 gallons a month in gas; the average household consumes 97 gallons, Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, told the Detroit Free Press.
He said falling gas prices could make it a “no-brainer” for states to increase taxes at the pump to fix aging infrastructure despite politicians considering gas prices to be a third rail for consumers.
Of all the plans on the board, Michigan’s, proposed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, may be the most aggressive. It would more than double the state’s 19-cent gas tax over the next four years to 44 cents on the gallon.
But Joel Griffith, research associate at the Heritage Foundation, says not so fast, Michigan. He writes in a recent article in the Daily Signal that while the state’s roads are in need of improvement, Michigan residents would be better served if Snyder would look at the spending side of the ledger instead of the revenue side.
Griffith says Michigan, like a lot of states, has not spent its existing highway dollars wisely, opting to pump money into under-used public transportation systems. Money has also been squandered on little-used sidewalks through suburban and even rural areas and bike paths, rather than where it is needed for road improvements.
Another problem in states like Michigan and New Jersey is that many road projects require union wage rates that inflate costs. Get rid of those inflated salaries and more roads can be built with fewer dollars, according to Griffith, who writes:
“Even worse is the money that Michigan has wasted and continues to waste on urban transit systems, such as the notorious People Mover in Detroit, with few riders and spectacular operating costs and subsidies. If existing gas tax dollars went to roads, not white elephants, the crisis would be largely alleviated without higher costs. Also, Michigan would have a better grasp on what funding level is actually needed to maintain and repair its roads and bridges.“In the end, Michigan spends more than $200,000 per mile each year for each mile of state-controlled highway—more than thirty other states without much to show for it. It’s time to rein in the spending first—not hike taxes on the working man without a second thought.”
Squandering existing highway dollars on non-highway projects
Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center and author of hundreds of articles on the pitfalls of the sustainable development agenda coming down from the United Nations, agrees that Republican governors advocating for higher gas taxes are trying to con taxpayers into coughing up more at the pump.
“They’ve overspent for years, their budgets are out of whack and now they’re rushing in to take advantage of something,” DeWeese told WND.
For the states run by Democrats, it’s more about promoting a green agenda and cutting back on carbon emissions in automobiles and coal-fired power plants, which are seen as evil.
“Promoting all of these wind and solar power projects raises the cost,” DeWeese said. “They want to do sustainable development, cutting everything back on fossil fuels and this is how they intend to do it. But this is their worst nightmare right now, that they can’t control the free market.”
DeWeese said the shale-oil boom in the Dakotas and other parts of the country has had a positive effect on the oil market and Saudi Arabia is trying to flex what muscle it has left by upping its oil production, resulting in oversupply on the world market.
“The free market has finally found a way around all the rules and regulations and it’s starting to bring prices down, and they’re getting upset,” he said.
The electric cars are not selling and investments in green energy are tanking.
And the average working American, after suffering through years of stagnating income, is finally starting to see a little disposable income in his pocket.
Breaking the back of the middle class
“It usually has been costing me $50 to fill up and put 14 gallons in my car,” DeWeese said.
Now that’s down to about $35.
“And very shortly it will cost me $25,” he said.
If you fill up once a week, that’s like getting a $25-a-week raise in your paycheck.
For a wealthy person, that’s no big deal. But for a working family living on say $800 or $1,200 a week, that’s huge.
“Suddenly I can take my family out to eat or maybe afford a couple of those expensive movie tickets,” DeWeese said.
But the “money grubbing wimps” in the state Houses and the governors’ mansions can’t stand this, he said.
“It’s an outrage. This is about control,” DeWeese said. “What people have to understand is that sustainable development and all the policies around it – whether it be mass-transit or urban high-rises and bike paths – are not about the environment but about reorganizing human civilization under a model of top-down control with a centrally planned economy.
“Think about it. If people are scattered all over the country and driving cars, it’s so much more difficult to keep tabs on you and track your movements.”
Herding people into cities
But most people don’t want to live in small apartments in the city, he said. They will only do so if they are forced to because they can no longer afford a suburban or rural lifestyle.
“People all over the world want to move to the suburbs and out of cities,” DeWeese said. “They use the term ‘urban sprawl’ as if it’s some sort of evil thing. But that evil urban sprawl is somebody’s home. They have a place for their kids to play, they can breathe, they have some space and they have the freedom of movement that only the car can offer them.”
And that’s why higher gas taxes are only popular with wealthy urban types and those in the cubicles of progressive think tanks and in academia, he said.
A Winthrop University poll conducted in South Carolina, one of the states where a gas tax hike is being considered, shows that 52 percent of the state’s people oppose any hike in the state’s now friendly rate of 16.8 cent per gallon. The proposal by Republican state Sen. Larry Grooms would raise the tax 2 cents per year for 10 years in a row until it hits 36 cents per gallon in 2025.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/pump-you-up-states-sneak-gas-tax-hikes-as-prices-fall/#iQxIWDypt2DSFUbi.99
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