Herbert Hoover would have been proud of Governor Deval Patrick’s move to increase the gasoline tax to 19 cents/gallon and peg future increases to the cost of living increases.
Not since Herbert Hoover supported and signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 to aid farmers has there been such a wrong-headed and stupid idea.
Smoot-Hawley drove this country deeper into the Great Depression of 1929 and Governor Deval Patrick’s proposed outrageous gas tax increase in the current Great Depression will do the same.
Most products and services travel by car or truck and you can be sure the increased cost of gas will be passed right along to the already strapped consumer like falling dominos … and I don’t mean pizzas.
The Massachusetts driver is set upon at every turn whether it be an outrageous Excise Tax, Auto Insurance,Nazi like local cat-up-the tree cops handing out tickets to fill their quotos and for revenue enhancement and already high gasoline costs.
Why did the governor single out only the automobile driver? Under the former governor and drunk bill weld the gas tax was passed to fix these very same roads and bridges. Where did that money go. And now Deval Patrick wants MORE. NO! NO! NO!
If the governor had any testicular fortitude and the roads and bridges really needed to be fixed he would have proposed an across the board increase in the state sales tax which would have made everyone contribute to the cause not just a select number.
Call you legislator, Call the Governor, Call Howie Carr et al. and say ” WE ARE AS MAD AS HELL AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE.”
Stop Governor Deval Patrick from Passing Gas. The whole thing stinks to high heavens.
Feel free to state your position plainly: no need for indirection and oblique implications.
…from a Merrimack Valley perspective raising the sales tax is at least as much folly – even more reason to jump to NH.
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p>And yes, those pizzas will certainly be affected since they are very often delivered:)
passes for a diary around here these days? Talk about disappointing.
You are the fool if you are going to take this GAS TAX without protest.
I already posted on my own blog that I support it. The price of gas does NOT reflect its cost to society. Instead, the oil companies get to externalize and slough off that cost onto us. The measures we need to take (renewables, public transit, and yes, even fixing roads/bridges worn down by use, the heavier the auto the more wear) cost money. You cannot be seriously suggesting you can get something (fixed bridges/roads, mitigation of global climate change, more renewable research and support) for nothing.
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p>Nothing in life is free. If you don’t like the gas tax, I suggest you stop driving on roads and bridges.
That dog is not going to hunt….
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p>Cutting is not a solution in the crisis and the governor is faced with an infrastructure that has been ignored for a decade and has continued to grow beyond it’s capability. You want economic growth you want good jobs then the infrastructure needed to support business and growth needs to be added to and repaired and upgraded to keep pace. We have water and sewer that goes back tot he WPA days and was built for a much smaller population yet we have grown both population and industry to the point that the systems are breaking down. So you want a discussion then offer a solution stand up and yelling is not a solution.
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p>Also please try to remember that all of the upgrades and new infrastructure construction may be paid for by tax dollars but it is private sector workers and businesses doing 90 % of the work.
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p>You have three categories
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p>1 Value Taxes ie Property tax
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p>2 Consumption Taxes ie Sales and Gas taxes
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p>3 Earning Taxes ie Personal income tax, Capital gains taxes
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p>The Governor has proposed a modest tax after down sizing government and taking over a down sized state government that had Mitt cutting for 4 years. So let’s here it, I know it is needed in order to have a sound infrastructure to continue to build (construct) the homes and buildings needed for economic growth and so I will pay it.
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p>As Usual just my Opinions
What a bunch of Kool-Aid drinkers all.
You would sell out your first born child for a politician. Sad!
Want to know where all the money went for the past 10 or 12 years since Weld raised the GAS TAX.
FIRE THE HACKS FIRST AND THEN WE CAN TALK.
YOU MUST ALL BE HACKS. Howie Carr are you taking notes here. You could probably get a year’s worth of columns out of the sycophants who respond here.
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p>Again, if and when the roads and bridges need to be fixed do not go after just one segment of the population for a state wide problem. That is what that anal sphincter, Michael Stanley Do Kakis, did when he burdened 34 cities and towns only with the clean-up of Boston Harbor which is an national and international waterway.
If the roads and bridges need to be fixed every resident should contribute as well as passers-by. Suggestion, raise the State Sales Tax to 5 1/2 or 6 %. That would be much fairer and everyone would contribute to the commonweal not just the set upon drivers.
Wake up before the KOOL-AID kills you!
This is a discussion no one here is making the policy and your standing in the corner jumping up and down screaming at the wall.
I invited you to offer another suggestion and to discuss alternatives, and I am glad you did. I would ad to this discussion, that a sales tax increase is the most regressive form of tax, since low income workers have to spend a higher percentage of their income on things that are subject to the sales tax it is then disproportionately on them as more and more income goes to pay the tax, so I would not agree with your choice of tax alternative besides how do you tie what you wear and eat to the road you drive to get to work. Gas taxes going to transportation makes perfect sense first it requires everyone who uses the roads and bridges to pay for that ability. Frankly I think there should be a fuel surcharge added to public transportation at this point as part of the system of pay as you go.
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p>I have to ask PJ do you own a gas station or do you have an SUV or do you drive for your work, obviously this is more then the $100.00 Approx. per year it would ad to the average drivers costs (12,000 miles/23mpg x.19 =). As a way to make sure our bridges stay standing and our highways stay drivable I think it is a reasonable expense so long as other taxes do not continue to climb at the same time. Certainly you have to agree it would be far better to not have a bridge collapse like they experienced in Minnesota last year.
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p>If you can stop jumping up and down maybe you have an explanation for why you think the sales tax works best.
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p>As Usual Just my Opinions
No, don’t own a gas station.
But I would think the gas station owners if they have an association would be all over this STUPID idea.
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p>As to a Sales Tax being regressive and hitting poor people I am among the Poor People and I buy gas to drive my car to go look for work. If I need to buy a product under the Sales Tax I pay it.
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p>But the Gas TAX is a Domino which will bring the entire economy down in TAXaschusetts.
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p>Let us not go back to the arogant ways of that thug Michael Stanley Do Kakis. Sadly, Deval Patrick is developing that same nasty, I know better than you do attitude that the Duke had.