States Flirting With Higher Gas Taxes

For politicians, two of the most dreaded words in the English language are "gas tax," and it was only a few months ago that a few of them (including some presidential candidates), were proposing gas-tax holidays for the summer driving season.

As it stands, the current federal gas tax is at 18.4 cents per gallon -- and it has not budged for essentially 15 years. Each state except Alaska slaps its own tax on gasoline, and these, too, rarely get raised. The average state tax is 30 cents and the high is California with 48.7 cents. (See the American Petroleum Institute's state-by-state breakdown for more.)
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Comments

[jacobomorales]

a good idea, it is positive in every way...

[Mildmannered]

I am in favor of higher gas taxes. With gas at a (relatively) low price, now is the time to impose the taxes. My guess is that the dollar will soon drop and gas prices will rise.

[Semaj51]

A problem with raising gas taxes will be the cascading effect - for example look at your bread. Higher gas taxes will cost the farmer more to plant/harvest his crop, than there is the added cost of transporting the grain to bakeries. Than add on the cost of transporting the bread to the store, and finally, the added costs to you directly to drive t the store and back to get the loaf of bread. This is the unseen effects of all taxes -- buisnesses will just add on the extra costs to the consumer.

[KillTheMessenger]

Well, that is what you are trying to do when you raise taxes... you get money from the taxpayer. Some of it is direct, much of it is indirect. I don't see where the problem is, unless we simply admit that we do not really want to spend the money on our kids and are perfectly contempt if they get a poor education. And we also won't complain any longer when our bridges and levees collapse, because that is so much better than having to pay another five cents for a loaf of bread.

Right?

[degenerate1991]

Gasoline taxes are NEVER used for education, nor will they ever be. If gas taxes are raised, then any money will simply be used to cover shortfalls in the road budget ( a worthy cause if there ever was one). It is irrational to cloak tax increases in the fabric of "thinking of the children". We spend more per child on education than any other industrialized nation on the planet, yet the results are inferior. At some level, this is a cultural failure, a failure that no amount of money can fix.

[KillTheMessenger]

Doubling or tripling these state taxes would be a great idea. It won't happen because of American "gas tax phobia", though, an incurable mental condition known to mostly exist in economically bankrupt nations.