It doesn’t take a Nobel economist to make the case against raising the gas tax when gas is somewhere north of $4 a gallon, and climbing. The average ten year old can do it.
The logic blurs considerably when the price is $1.57 (Virginia’s current average for regular gasoline) and you throw in a $3 billion deficit.
The long knives are out in state capitals across the country- and rightly so. Forty other states are facing recession driven deficits.
Governor Kaine has proposed slashing services, lay-offs, a doubling of the tobacco tax, and other penny pinching measures. All seem considered, all prudent- but that won’t make them easy.
He’ll need fortitude, guile, charm, luck -and a whip and a chair- on that tobacco tax increase.
While he’s getting slapped around on that one, he might as well make the fight worthwhile and propose a temporary gas tax increase. He might not win, but there’s something to be said for going down swinging on an issue that matters.
A temporary 20-cents per gallon tax increase, sun-setting, say when the national average hits $2 a gallon, would raise $65 million per month for the Commonwealth and still keep gas prices below where they were just a month ago ($1.82)
Twenty cents a gallon would raise more revenue in 60 days than a doubling of the tax on cigarettes would raise in a year.
The time for courage and external circumstances have finally aligned- crude oil is bouncing below $40 a barrel, gas at the pump is at a five year low, and OPEC is in a hand wringing dither.
Virginia gas retailers pump 327-328,000,000 gallons a month. Put 20 cents on the gallon and do the math.
Of the fifty states and the District of Columbia, only seven- Alaska, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming- raise less state revenue per gallon than does Virginia.
Now is the time to change that.
Governor Kaine and the state’s lawmakers should fully consider a temporary increase in the state’s gas tax- yes, Virginia, even in a recession.
I dislike tax increases as much or more than anyone I know, and in general, I am for smaller government as opposed to bigger government.
With that in mind, it’s hard for me to understand why we would not fund our needed transportation improvements with some sort of increase in the gasoline tax. As a citizen, I look at the gas tax as the price of admission to our network of roads and highways, much like the toll on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The interlocking ribbon of concrete and asphalt that ties the USA together has to be one of the best investments our country has ever made. But in addition to the new roads and bridges we need, our older ones are crumbling–even in Virginia.
Twenty-five years ago, when I travelled outside Virginia by car, I could always tell when I crossed the state line back into Virginia, especially on the interstate highways. The road suddenly became much smoother, the grassy median strips were mowed, and the metal girders on the overpasses were free of rust.
It’s different now. The surfaces of many of Virginia’s major highways and bridges feel more like a washboard, pockmarked with potholes and patches. Virginia’s roads today often remind me of I-94 between Detroit and Chicago 25 years ago–where the sound of my tires hitting the potholes and the fractured seams in the concrete roadway played a constant refrain of “thump-thump-thump” over the entire route.
Aside from the increased maintenance cost to our personal and commercial vehicles from the wear and tear on shock absorbers, springs, and tires, there are other costs due to poorly maintained roads. One of these is the subjective cost in damage to our state’s image.
Perhaps it’s because I spent three summers working on a paving crew laying asphalt, or maybe I’m a reincarnated former civil engineer. Either way, I think that as citizens of Virginia, we should be able to take pride in our transportation system. It’s the same pride I used to feel when I would cross back into my home state after having been gone for a while.
I also believe that a well-maintained statewide highway network sends a positive message to people coming to Virginia–for business, for vacation, or just passing through. It says that in Virginia, we have our act together in transportation. It says that we care. In a very real sense, good roads are a marketing tool for the Commonwealth.
Sure, Virginia needs better rail, and expanded deepwater ports, and enhanced airports. But we also need good, safe roads and bridges. And if you ask me whether I would be willing to pay more for gas to ensure that we will have them, I say, “You bet.” I leave it to the transportation economists to come up with the exact number, but to me, it would be money well spent.
Unfortunately, our leaders in both the executive and legislative branches of Virginia government appear unwilling to push an increase in the gas tax. Maybe Governor Kaine should ask former Governor Mark Warner’s advice about how to get a tax increase through and still emerge with a high approval rating. To me, an increase in the gas tax now is far more justifiable than the sales tax increase was under Governor Warner.