There will be a public hearing held at Lynn City Hall on Monday, December 15, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
There will be an anti-toll increase rally in front of Lynn City Hall starting at 6 .p.m. The proposed increase represents bad policy for the Commonwealth and is very unfair to North Shore commuters. Make your voicces heard!
State Rep. John Keenan of Salem is quoted in the Salem News calling on all concerned to come to the hearing. Read about it: http://www.salemnews.com/punew…
PLEASE JOIN US IN LYNN ON MONDAY EVENING!
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
Please share widely!
..which could be used as part of the solution.
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p>Auto excise tax is paid for every registered auto. Few millionaires are in Delta 88’s, and few poor people are in Escalades. Of all taxes, auto excise has the best correlation with actual ability to pay.
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p>So why not a excise surtax?
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p>People in my area are dependent on cars for transport – we have no T or trains (although we subsidize those of metrowest and Boston through taxes) and would be hit esp. hard by increased gas tax since we have no meaningful public transport. As it is, gas prices are $.20-$.30 cents more than off Cape, so the additional tax is even worse.
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p>Why the gas tax?
Perhaps the gas tax is mentioned most often because it is already out there and drivers are used to it. The suggestion of the excise tax is interesting. AFAIK, the excise tax bills are prepared by the Registry and shipped to each town en mass, who mail them, then collect and use the revenues. When I lived in CT, it was called a personal property tax, as opposed to real estate tax. It was taxed at a different rate than real estate, but billed, collected, and used locally. A comparison between the gas tax and the excise could be said to be one of a usage tax (gas),excise since the more you use, the more you pay, and an ownership or property tax (excise), since you are charged based on the value of the vehicle. Should we say a more valuable vehicle is owned by a wealthier owner, therefore more capable of paying more tax, as in a graduated income tax, or should we say that a low value old heap that gets driven a lot, therefore having a greater impact on road services should also pay more for that greater use?
To respond to PP — I should say there is certainly nothing magical about the gas tax per se. There’s an ancillary benefit of discouraging driving … with an ancillary downside of hurting people who have to drive. I get that.
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p>We’re in bad shape and need to pay bills. The gas tax seems like the least disruptive way to do that. People will grumble, but right now I’m afraid the Tobin Bridge population and East Boston are ready for blood.
These legislators calling for a Gas Tax increase are only covering up for past misuse of the 1991 Gas Tax that was then to repair our crumbling roads and bridges. They should not advocate any Gas tax, Tunnel or Turnpike increased Tolls until there is full accounting of what was done, what the State is currently doing, where we want to go, and those who got Massachusetts into this mess are held accountable. I am enclosing a copy of a commentary that I wrote and circulated on various outlets.
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p>MASSACHUSETTS TURNPIKE, TUNNEL, AND GAS TAX INCREASE PROPOSALS BEING DONE TO COVER UP INEFFICIENCY, WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE OF THE BIG DIG AND FAILURE TO FIX THE ROADS AND BRIDGES FROM THE PREVIOUS GAS TAX INCREASE?
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p>December 8, 2008
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p>Former longtime Turnpike Chair Jack Driscoll wanted to pay off original bonds to make the road free. His financial promise was not carried out by his successors and they issued more bonds and unnneeded debt. Former House Chair of Transportation and now lobbyist Steven Karol stated in a debate measure before the House to stop legislation that would have guaranteed oversight of the Big Dig that the turnpike would not pay for the Big Dig!
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p>During the heyday of the BIG DIG Karol and his cochair counterpart in the Massachusetts Senate Robert Havern battled against or did not listen to calls for accountability and oversight of the Big Dig. The plague of the Big Dig scheme was birthed by former Democratic Michael Dukais and his Transportation guru Fred Salvucci. Subsequent Republican Governors Weld, Cellucci, Swift, and Romaney along with their transportation czars Jim Carlin and Jim Kerasiotis elevated the effort to an art form.
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p>This resulted in needed funds to fix unfit roads and bridges coming in from the Federal Government being diverted to the Big Dig. Their tandam efforts saw the Big Dig go from $2.3 Billion to $23+ Billion with almost not accountability and oversight. Massachusetts now has the most expensive unmonitored privitized construction project monument in history built that resulted in waste, fraud, and abuse, and bad construction.
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p>We were promised that the Big Dig would be funded 90% with federal funds and was not. The last gas tax in 1991 was suppose to fix the roads and bridges needing repairs and did not.
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p>Current Transportation Committee heads Senator Baddour and Representative Joseph Wagner need an education wake up call. First, their Transportation Committee should hire its own non political independent structural and civil engineers and an economist to do its own analysis and determine the real needs and not depend on the special interests to set policy. Also, when will Senator Baddour and Representaive Wagner learn that privatization with no accountability that they have allowed does not work? They have not learned from privatization failures of the Big Dig genius of Bechtel Parson or Modern Continental on Rte. 3.
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p>Massachusetts needs another WARD type commission that came about during the government center scandal to get the real facts, precisely pinpoint blame for current failures to see where the monies went before any toll or gas tax increases. The time is overdue for real accountability and oversight that guarantees no more waste, fraud, and abuse of Federal Highway Monies, Toll and Tunnel Collections, or Gas Taxes.