Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Raising gasoline tax makes sense

This is editorial news about raising gasoline tax makes sense Yes — it sounds a bit crazy to talk about a tax increase when the economy is sputtering and Texans, like the rest of the country, are squeezing every dime hard. But an increase in the state's gasoline tax would be a welcome sign of sanity. The state hasn't raised the gas tax since 1991, so that 20 cents a gallon has lost more than half of its purchasing power because of inflation. Just indexing the tax to inflation would have little immediate impact, which is why the state ought to raise it first — say, by 10 cents a gallon — and then index it. A 50 percent increase in the tax sounds like a lot, but a 10 cent rise pales to nothing compared with the increase in the actual of cost of gasoline last summer of $2 a gallon. It hurt, but we paid it. Gasoline is back under $2 a gallon, and now's the time to raise the tax. Gov. Rick Perry, who should be leading on this issue, apparently has signaled he wouldn't oppose indexing the gasoline tax. Texans want and need more and improved highways, but they also must know that we are going to have to pay for them — there's no highway fairy, not even in the federal government. The gasoline tax is an efficient way to collect that money. I think this article is worth reading because in some way it shows that even if the economy is really bad and they are squeezing every dime hard.

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