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Governor gets business leaders to support gas tax
By adamg on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 2:06pm
NECN covered a Boston chamber of commerce meeting today at which Deval Patrick said he will either try for an increase in the gas tax or an increase in turnpike tolls, but not both. There's a show of hands starting around 4:30:
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Comments
To be fair these are Boston
To be fair these are Boston based business owners who would get hammered with the addition of toll increases. I bet if you talk to businesses elsewhere they would have a different opinion. That being said Im in full agreement, no new tolls.
Summary
"Turnpike" debt is driving the issue. April is the deadline for a decision because of events with debt financing.
Gov. plans to consolidate Commonwealth transportation authorities to facilitate implementation of new transportation policies.
Talked about gas tax rates from $0.29 to 0.25/gallon then later explained that
.01 tax/gal. = $26 million in revenue
.04 tax/gal. = same as toll increase to cover debt and debt service
Therefor the Gov. wants to increase gas tax by .21 - 25 per gallon for new revenue.
Also is considering having the RMV charge a structured registration fee that decreases with gas efficient vehicles and increases for gas-guzzlers.
Says he will not support tolls AND gas tax increase, it's one or the other.
This is wrong-minded in my opinion. He should marginally increase tolls because tolls are targeted to those who use the $10 Billion tunnels. He could increase tolls 20% a year for four years.
If he's going to raise gas tax throughout the Commonwealth, by an amount in excess of $.04 cents a gallon , he must have a plan to return it to the municipality in which it was collected; if not, citizens in Pittsfield, Springfield and Worcester pay for the Central artery tunnel cost and maintenance without anything to show for it.
We could always...
The state could always just stop salting the roads outside of 128. It costs too much given the amount of money that is needed to cover debt, repair, and continuous operation of the Central Artery. Oh? They want some road funds? Well, they'll have to pay a small per gallon tax increase on gas then.
MA puts more federal tax money in than it gets back in federal benefits. We're nice like that. Pittsfield, Springfield, and Worcester will put more state gas tax money in than it will get back in state benefits. They're nice like that. It's the way the world works.
What I do agree with you on, however, is the idea of a regular, incremental increase in tunnel tolls over a defined period of time. Part of the knee-jerk to toll hikes is that they often go forever at a single price and when the system can no longer sustain that rate, they jump quite a margin to compensate (and buffer for the next few years with a bit of extra cap space).
Instead, tolls should increase slowly just as cost of living, inflation, and everything else involved does. If the tolls went up a bit every year, it would be the kind of small nudge to the end user that goes largely unnoticed or less upsetting when it happens. There would be no exciting news headlines to create a popular uproar, etc. It would just be another fact of life.
Like the 2 cent stamp
Like the 2 cent stamp increase thats coming this year, last year it was 1. If stamps were to go up to over a dollar a piece tomorrow Id freak out.
Well ...
Well, until they build an international airport in Pittsfield, Springfield, or Worcester, residents there are just going to have to suck it up and pay higher gas taxes, because they do benefit from our tunnels and roads maintenance.