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posted by martyb on Thursday November 13 2014, @10:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the pump-it-up dept.

Pat Garofalo writes in an op-ed in US News & World Report that with the recent drop in oil prices, there's something policymakers can do that will offset at least some of the negative effects of the currently low prices, while also removing a constant thorn in the side of American transportation and infrastructure policy: Raise the gas tax. The current 18.4 cent per gallon [federal] gas tax has not been raised since 1993, making it about 11 cents per gallon today, in constant dollars. Plus, as fuel efficiency has gotten better and Americans have started driving less, the tax has naturally raised less revenue anyway. And that's a problem because the tax fills the Highway Trust Fund, which is, not to put too fine a point on it, broke so that in recent years Congress has had to patch it time and time again to fill the gap. According to the Tax Policy Center's Howard Gleckman, if Congress doesn't make a move, "it will fumble one of those rare opportunities when the economic and policy stars align almost perfectly." The increase can be phased in slowly, a few cents per month, perhaps, so that the price of gas doesn't jump overnight. When prices eventually do creep back up thanks to economic factors, hopefully the tax will hardly be noticed.

Consumers are already starting to buy the sort of gas-guzzling vehicles, including Hummers, that had been going out of style as gas prices rose; that's bad for both the environment and consumers, because gas prices are inevitably going to increase again. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, taxes last year, even before the current drop in prices, made up 12 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, down from 28 percent in 2000. And compared to other developed countries, US gas taxes are pretty much a joke. While we're at it, an even better idea, as a recent report from the Urban Institute makes clear, would be indexing the gas tax to inflation (pdf), so this problem doesn't consistently arise. "The status quo simply isn't sustainable, from an infrastructure or environmental perspective," concludes Garofalo. "So raise the gas tax now; someday down the line, it will look like a brilliant move."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 14 2014, @02:12AM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday November 14 2014, @02:12AM (#115746)

    This article shows Fox News at its best. Numbers don't line up and vary through it. It's clearly not been read by anyone but its author.

    The price of Gas in SoCal has dropped 70 cents in the last three months, which is more than the CA+Federal tax. It's easy to point at Bad Evil Gubmint, but the tax burden per gallon hasn't changed while the gallon went from a buck to 4 bucks...
    I go from point A to point B in one of the cheapest and most fuel-efficient non-hybrids on the market, and I'm looking at buying a scooter for the short school trips. If my neighbors don't like the price of gas going up, they should stop having an Escalade and a V6 Lexus (no kids). We could also stop pissing off Iran and trying to keep Iraq together, maybe we'd have a chance at Pre-Bush prices ("OMG! $2 a gallon, Clinton is killing us")

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