Comments on: Gas tax holiday http://bjhess.com/blog/2006/05/02/gas-tax-holiday/ Barry Hess, speaking in tongues. Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:51:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: bjhess http://bjhess.com/blog/2006/05/02/gas-tax-holiday/#comment-1765 bjhess Wed, 03 May 2006 01:30:19 +0000 http://bjhess.com/bjhessblog/?p=792#comment-1765 I'm guessing there are two arguments for a gas tax increase going on here. One to fund more public works, a liberal progressive idea. One to decrease demand. And of course, if one thinks demand will be decreased, then the tax would not be 100% efficient toward adding money to the public works coffers. I’m guessing there are two arguments for a gas tax increase going on here. One to fund more public works, a liberal progressive idea. One to decrease demand. And of course, if one thinks demand will be decreased, then the tax would not be 100% efficient toward adding money to the public works coffers.

]]> By: Luke http://bjhess.com/blog/2006/05/02/gas-tax-holiday/#comment-1763 Luke Wed, 03 May 2006 00:23:00 +0000 http://bjhess.com/bjhessblog/?p=792#comment-1763 From what I've gathered (and I'm by no means an expert on the subject), Minnesota is in dire need of infrastructure upgrades. The usual source of funding for such work is bonds, which have to be repaid. Without a way to repay the bonds, the state government can't seek them out. Thus, since there is no way to pay for the needed infrastructure upgrade bonds, the plans to rebuild stuff goes no where. The DFL has, at several different points, proposed a modest gas tax increase to pay for road repairs. At every turn it's been shot down under the exact argument that MEG described - "Big Government liberals want to raise the taxes on downtrodden working people." Sure, that sounds ominous, but they never mention what the money would pay for. Same old bullsh*t. Last week I'd heard that W was requesting the authority to raise the CAFE standards on automobiles, forcing them to either make more efficient vehicles or change their product mix. Those proposals have been floated by Dems (and some in the GOP) for years as a way to decrease the stranglehold of foreign oil. The automakers generally lobby hard to defeat such measures, and they certainly haven't been popular with our oil-friendly Executive Branch. It'll be interesting to see what comes of that now. I read a statistic a week or so ago that showed a tremendous drop in oil imports if we'd increase CAFE by like 2 or 3 MPG. From what I’ve gathered (and I’m by no means an expert on the subject), Minnesota is in dire need of infrastructure upgrades. The usual source of funding for such work is bonds, which have to be repaid. Without a way to repay the bonds, the state government can’t seek them out. Thus, since there is no way to pay for the needed infrastructure upgrade bonds, the plans to rebuild stuff goes no where.

The DFL has, at several different points, proposed a modest gas tax increase to pay for road repairs. At every turn it’s been shot down under the exact argument that MEG described - “Big Government liberals want to raise the taxes on downtrodden working people.” Sure, that sounds ominous, but they never mention what the money would pay for. Same old bullsh*t.

Last week I’d heard that W was requesting the authority to raise the CAFE standards on automobiles, forcing them to either make more efficient vehicles or change their product mix. Those proposals have been floated by Dems (and some in the GOP) for years as a way to decrease the stranglehold of foreign oil. The automakers generally lobby hard to defeat such measures, and they certainly haven’t been popular with our oil-friendly Executive Branch. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of that now. I read a statistic a week or so ago that showed a tremendous drop in oil imports if we’d increase CAFE by like 2 or 3 MPG.

]]> By: MEG http://bjhess.com/blog/2006/05/02/gas-tax-holiday/#comment-1761 MEG Tue, 02 May 2006 22:28:02 +0000 http://bjhess.com/bjhessblog/?p=792#comment-1761 I don’t know if Westover would agree with me that a gas tax increase would actually be good policy, but it doesn’t matter because no candidate who proposes a gas tax increase will get elected. I can imagine the campaign ad), cue threatening music, "Candidate X wants to raise taxes on hard-working middleclass people like you. Tell Candidate X to say no to higher gas taxes." I don’t know if Westover would agree with me that a gas tax increase would actually be good policy, but it doesn’t matter because no candidate who proposes a gas tax increase will get elected. I can imagine the campaign ad), cue threatening music, “Candidate X wants to raise taxes on hard-working middleclass people like you. Tell Candidate X to say no to higher gas taxes.”

]]>