Sen. John Miller wants tax increase
By Brian Kirwin | Monday, January 25th, 2010 | PolicySen. John Miller didn’t get the memo.
Even though his district was won by Governor Bob McDonnell with 64% of the vote, Democrat Miller thinks right now is a dandy time for a giant tax increase!
SB 684 would add a 5% tax to gasoline while lowering the current 17.5 cents per gallon gas tax to five cents temporarily, then hike it back up to 15 cents. It would also hike the car sales tax
Funny, I don’t remember John Miller telling the voters he’d be raising taxes once he was in office.
Creigh Deeds and his never-ending tax tables would’ve had room for Miller’s gas tax. Perhaps Miller is aiming to match the 36% Deeds got in Miller’s district.
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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7 Responses to "Sen. John Miller wants tax increase"
Or perhaps, unlike some folks in the legislature, it’s not “All Politics 24/7″ for Miller and he’s actually looking at the policy value of a gas tax hike. I presume he’d dedicate all the proceeds to transportation. You can’t build, or maintain, roads without money. I don’t personally like the way he’s structured this, it’s unecessarilly complicated. Just add a dime a gallon to the current gas tax. The price gas jumps and falls by more than 20 cents per gallon per week these days anyway, so this wouldn’t break anyone. And it would provide needed funds for the transportation systems. Of course it isn’t as politically appealing as “hey, we can cut taxes and build all the roads you want.”
SV I agree with you.
Miller was well intentioned-he also said that the senate would have to give on allowing general fund dollars to go to transportation and the House on the gas tax for anything to result-i.e. both sides would have to compromise.
A better idea than a sales tax on gas would be tying the gas tax to inflation as measured by CPI index. And to insure that the money is spent as planned and not diverted, a constitutional amendment to protect the trust fund would be a good idea as well. (The details would have to be figured out-require 2/3 majorities in both houses or 3/4; and require repayment with interest at prime in five years, etc.)
SEVAMWC -I wouldn’t disagree with your plan, although I think if you indexed the cost of gas to inflaction since the last time the gas tax was raised in the late 1980s, I’m pretty sure that would come out to a lot more than the 10 cent per gallon increase I was advocating. Part of our problem with highway funding is that this tax was set at flat rate per gallon instead of as a percentage of the purchase price in the first place.
ACTUALLY, the “real” value of gasoline has stayed relatively constant, if not declined. Check out this graph
JR over the long term you are absolutely correct. That being said, dramatic swings over short periods of time are common (hence the exclusion from “core CPI”) and using the CPI index, instead of a % of the price per gallon would reduce the likelihood of spikes in the “gas tax” at the very time that gas prices are spiking most.
SV-Using 1986 as a base year would increase the tax by more than 10 cents, you are correct. That being said wasnt necessarily proposing that, but that it should be re-indexed every year. Of course we would have to determine a base year-preferably sometime in mid to late nineties
[...] Nevermind that commuting college students would be forking out gobs of money if Miller’s gas tax increase is approved. January 29th, 2010 | Category: Colleges, Democrats, Features, Government, [...]
[...] Nevermind that commuting college students would be forking out gobs of money if Miller’s gas tax increase is [...]
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