Blue Mass Group

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Should We Move to New Hampshire?

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The New Hampshire House just voted to raise the gas tax by 15 cents!!!!

From the Union-Leader:

CONCORD – The New Hampshire House yesterday voted to raise the state’s gasoline tax by five cents in each of the next three years.

The measure, which passed 190-162, will raise an estimated $111 million a year for the state highway fund by the time the full 15-cent increase takes effect. Diesel fuel will see the same 15-cent increase, but the three hikes will be spread out until 2013 to ease the effect on truckers. The bill calls for the first five-cent increase to hit on July 1.



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If the Senate approves the bill, HB 644, the state gas tax will increase to 34.6 cents per gallon by April 1, 2011 — 33 cents per gallon for highways and bridges and 1.6 cents per gallon for an oil cleanup fund.

It seems quite likely that New Hampshire drivers will soon be paying 11 cents more per gallon in gas taxes than Massachusetts drivers currently pay.  Let’s get with the program and follow New Hampshire’s lead.  (Can’t believe I’d every be writing that sentence.  Just goes to show you how behind the curve Massachusetts is on this issue.)

“Taxachusetts” is a myth.

Our current gas tax is pitifully inadequate.  The lack of gas tax revenue–not Big Dig cost overruns–is the cause of our crumbling transportation infrastructure and our highest-in-the-nation debt load.

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Comments

    • For far too long too many Democrats in the State Legislature have bought into and reinforced to hoaxes hoaxes at the heart of the right-wing and libertarian spin machines: 1) taxes-are-bad (or a necessary evil at best), and 2) Massachusetts-is-Taxachusetts .

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      p>During the 1990’s Internet Bubble, Democrats in the Legislature passed over 40 tax cuts.  This–not the Big Dig–is the root cause of our state’s out-of-control structural deficit, and our first-in-the-nation level of transportation debt.

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      p>We’re number one!   Whoooooo!!!!

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      p>We are now paying the price for this “you can have it all” fiscal imprudence.

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      p>And now, Deval Patrick is calling them out on it.  Letting the gas tax loose over a third of its value over the last 18 years is the height of irresponsibility.

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      p>It is time to send a clear message to legislators:  Raise the gas tax, raise it by a meaningful amount, and raise it now.

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      p>And let’s get labor on board with planting the seeds for a multi-year campaign to win a progressive income tax.  Will we have to wait for New Hampshire to beat us to that punch as well?

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      p>–Leo

      • Soon he will eclipse M. Stanley Dukakis. We all know how near and dear Gov. Dukakis is to tax payers.

        • …the same Gov. Dukakis who presided over the Massachusetts Miracle?

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          p>Any chance you could contribute constructively to this conversation by offering alternatives rather than constantly sniping?

  2. We are rethinking our survivalist family compound in NH after my daughter’s house deal fell through.  The second part is that NH wimped out on the very hopeful 10th amendment deal.
    http://www.tenthamendmentcente…

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    p>Did see a 200acre farm in ME though.

    • Where has this guy been for 25 years?  In 1984, Sir Ronald Reagan signed a bill tying federal funding on roads to a drinking age of 21.  25 years ago.  Where have these guys been all this time?

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      p>The timing is clear.  They can’t oppose the stimulus bill head on because it’s so popular.  So, they try an end-around.  Fair enough, but only adhering to this philosophy when you’re the opposition party makes one an opportunist at best.  Same goes for opposition to earmarks, upperdown votes, etc.

  3. We have under-invested in public transportation for far too long.  If you live in Mattapan, Chelsea, or Somerville, for years, the state has given you a pretty answer to your hopes for a quick way to work or shop or visit Boston: “you can’t get ther from here.”  Or if you can, it will be only by taking a bus which gets stuck in traffic and comes too infrequently.  

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    p>High speed rail to Springfield.  Better public transit Extending the commuter rail further down the South Shore, to the Cape, and serving New Bedford and Fall River. Much better public transit in Lowell, Lawrence, Brockton, Worcester, and central Mass. Building the Red Line out to Arlington, the Blue Line up the North Shore, and yes, finally

    extending the Green Line through Somerville to Medford.

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    p>It’s about cleaner air.  Faster commutes.  A more productive economy.  Healthier people.  And creating thousands of jobs.  Time for us all to pay a little more.  It’s an investment we need.

    • Of the 34.6 cent increase in NH, 33 cents will be going to roads and bridges.

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      p>Of the 19 cent increase in MA, a measly 1.5 cents is targetted for road projects. That isn’t going to fix many potholes.

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      p>And no, I’m not suggesting we up the tax proposal to 50 cents to be on par with NH. It’s not just NH is raising revenue. It’s spending the revenue they have far better than MA.

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      p>Source: http://www.masslive.com/news/i…

      • First, a quick clarification: 34.6 is the total tax after the increase, not the increase itself. So they do not have a fifty cent increase.

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        p>And as for our increase: yes, New Hampshire puts vastly more of their gas tax into roads and bridges than our increase does. Why? Because NH has barely any public transit at all–public transit which is a much better way of spending gas tax money.

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        p>As for our current gas tax distribution:

        <

        p>We took in, in FY09, $674.6 million
        We put $577.7 million of this into the highway fund, and the rest into the general fund. It is in fact a travesty that none of this funds public transit, European-style.

    • At some point in time the state legislature decided in their infinite wisdom to funnel the gas tax into the general fund. That’s it—no more tax increases. This is now taxation without representation and to whatever consequence this leads—I will support it. I’m sick of this BS.

      • You said yourself this was an act of the legisture – which by definition would be WITH representation.

      • you missed demredsox’s excellent post.

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        p>

        As for our current gas tax distribution:

        We took in, in FY09, $674.6 million
        We put $577.7 million of this into the highway fund, and the rest into the general fund. It is in fact a travesty that none of this funds public transit, European-style.

        <

        p>Thanks for trying.  

  4. Candidate Deval Patrick wanted to launch a real conversation about what we want as a state AND how we intend to pay for it. He was elected in part because we wanted that kind of a conversation. Reasonable people will differ on both the vision and how it should be paid for. That is a good and healthy thing in a democracy.

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    p>Thanks, Leo, for being one of those intent on raising the level of public discourse.

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    p>The pols who fail to lead in thoughtful ways may find that they are not leaders for very much longer. The times they are a changin!

    • Thanks, Fred.

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      p>The age of budgetary gimmicks, false promises, and fiscal irresponsibility has to end.

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      p>Deval and Tim Murray are the ones who truly deserves a big shout out of thanks.

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      p>The Deval Patrick of the last two weeks is the Deval Patrick of the campaign–the Deval Patrick who left his let’s-honor-the-pledge-and-roll-back-the-income-tax-to-5-percent opponents in the dust.

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      p>Can you imagine what kind of shape we’d be in today if that had happened?

      <

      p>–Leo

      • What is the governors approval rating? 22%  —–Wow, he must be dazzling someone.

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        p>Hear Whoopi Goldberg on the tube—? Seems Whoopi now has buyers remorse. Surprise, surprise.

  5. …why we are targeting a specific tax for a specific purpose.  I’m not denying that our roads are in bad shape, but fixing them should come from the general budget, raised from general taxation like anything else.  If we keep ourselves under the NH rate, we might get it to fly in the Merrimack Valley even if we raise it a bit, but I continue to see this enthusiasm for a new tax as confirming the worst stereotypes about Democrats in public opinion.  It would be one thing if we went to voters and said we’ve looked at all the options and have concluded that we have no choice but to raise the gas tax, but the promoters on this site often come across sounding like they are salivating at the chance to do it.

    • Sorry, I jumped too soon. The comments distracted me from the diary itself. Maybe MCRD should move to New Hampshire.

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      p>But actually New Hampshire is pretty blue these days. How about Wyoming?

  8. … your attribution of our high debt load to the lack of gas tax if off the mark, imho…

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    p>If you take a look at the reports(s) I’ve either posted or linked to via my website, you’ll discover that the excessive debt load (nearing 50% of the MassTransport budget versus a median value of 6% amongst the 50 states!) results from yet another irresponsible piece of fiscal skullduggery.

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    p>The salaries of many transportation employees have been charged (for years, and growing!) to the capital expenditures budget (i.e. borrowing) rather than the operating budget (requiring taxes to pay for). So, we’ve been living on the credit card (like most of America), and now the chickens are coming home to roost, as is painfully obvious to all who follow the national economic picture.

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    p>We need to shake our propensity to put the problems off to the future (borrowing, using reserve funds, “deferred maintenance” etc.) and face up to our responsibility to pay for “the things we decide to do together” (Barney Frank’s phrase).  

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