Macon Telegraph reporter Travis Fain continues his extended reporting on Lucid Idiocy -- Georgia's Motor Fuel Tax.
Earlier this week Travis Fain had a post on Lucid Idiocy entitled "Gas taxes and falling bridges" that provided in part:
But it's obvious that we're low. The question is: "Why?" And I don't know the answer.
I wrote a comment to Travis's post which he made into the following post on Lucid Idiocy entitled "From one with more context than I:"
This is from the comments section on the gas tax post below. It comes from Sid Cottingham, aka Cracker Squire, who describes himself as a "traditional southern Democrat."
From my limited dealings with him, I'd call him a south Georgia gentleman.
If anyone has a rational counter point from the other side (be they traditional southern Republicans or otherwise) I'll be happy to promote that from the comments section, too. Thanks, Sid. [Thank you Travis.]
No one can give you a rational explanation about why our state’s motor fuel tax has long been on the untouchable list.
In the nineties then-Gov. Zell Miller began a move toward tax relief by persuading the legislature to remove the sales tax on groceries. The legislation exempting the sale of groceries from sales taxes was phased in over several years, and was complete in 1998.
Thereafter Gov. Roy Barnes came along in 1999, and in the same spirit of tax relief for the masses, lowered property taxes and made it more difficult for local governments and school districts to raise them.
Throughout these and earlier administrations, even though we have needed to improve and go forward with ambitious transportation improvement plans, an increase in our state’s motor fuel tax -- one of the lowest motor fuel taxes in the nation and much of any increase which would be borne by non-Georgians -- has been on the untouchable list.
But even though Barnes lowered property taxes during his first and only term, I have reason to believe that this logical tax increase would have become a reality had Gov. Barnes been elected to a second term. Maybe not real early in his term with the economy down and gas prices on the rise, but during his term nonetheless.
But we know that he did not get reelected, and thus this logical tax increase did not come about.
With Democrat Gov. Miller having lowered sales taxes by exempting groceries, Democrat Gov. Barnes having lowered property taxes, what in the world would Republican Perdue do in the way of proposing his own tax reductions.
As we remember, rather than continuing to please the masses, Gov. Perdue temporarily suffered amnesia and forgot them that brung him to the Gold Dome. Rather than cutting, his first major proposal involved raising taxes. And it wasn’t just going to be to get King Roy back by raising the property taxes that Barnes had cut.
The new governor also wanted to increase revenue for the state by reducing the consumption of taxable evil products. (Say what Gov.? Easy, says he; I propose increasing taxes on cigarettes and liquor as a way to help balance the state budget and, at the same time, dissuade Georgians from buying alcohol and tobacco.)
We recall that a compromise in Perdue’s proposed tax increase ultimately did prevail.
But with Barnes not having been reelected and since then not having someone in the governor's mansion that would bite the bullet and get down what needed to be done, the chance of getting an increase in our state’s motor fuel tax has indeed been put off until another day.
_______________
As noted above, thank you for the kind words Travis. And for those of you who are not following Travis's blog Lucid Idiocy, you are missing much.
I find that The Rome News-Tribune has some strong editorial writing. This one, advocating an increase in gasoline taxes to help upgrade decaying bridge infrastructure in light of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, is no exception.
This paragraph struck me:
GEORGIA HAS stuck with its 7.5-cent a gallon tax so long it’s now the lowest in the nation, while its “escalator clause” on gas — the sales tax — doesn’t go to highways but rather to whatever sandcastles the legislators want to build. And, all the while, the Georgia Department of Transportation can do little other than announce that billions of dollars in improvements or new work has been delayed or even cancelled for lack of funds.
It's a little more complicated than just comparing the 7.5-cents-a-gallon tax to other states, as seen here, as well as here.
This paragraph struck me:
GEORGIA HAS stuck with its 7.5-cent a gallon tax so long it’s now the lowest in the nation, while its “escalator clause” on gas — the sales tax — doesn’t go to highways but rather to whatever sandcastles the legislators want to build. And, all the while, the Georgia Department of Transportation can do little other than announce that billions of dollars in improvements or new work has been delayed or even cancelled for lack of funds.
It's a little more complicated than just comparing the 7.5-cents-a-gallon tax to other states, as seen here, as well as here.
But it's obvious that we're low. The question is: "Why?" And I don't know the answer.
_______________
I wrote a comment to Travis's post which he made into the following post on Lucid Idiocy entitled "From one with more context than I:"
This is from the comments section on the gas tax post below. It comes from Sid Cottingham, aka Cracker Squire, who describes himself as a "traditional southern Democrat."
From my limited dealings with him, I'd call him a south Georgia gentleman.
If anyone has a rational counter point from the other side (be they traditional southern Republicans or otherwise) I'll be happy to promote that from the comments section, too. Thanks, Sid. [Thank you Travis.]
No one can give you a rational explanation about why our state’s motor fuel tax has long been on the untouchable list.
In the nineties then-Gov. Zell Miller began a move toward tax relief by persuading the legislature to remove the sales tax on groceries. The legislation exempting the sale of groceries from sales taxes was phased in over several years, and was complete in 1998.
Thereafter Gov. Roy Barnes came along in 1999, and in the same spirit of tax relief for the masses, lowered property taxes and made it more difficult for local governments and school districts to raise them.
Throughout these and earlier administrations, even though we have needed to improve and go forward with ambitious transportation improvement plans, an increase in our state’s motor fuel tax -- one of the lowest motor fuel taxes in the nation and much of any increase which would be borne by non-Georgians -- has been on the untouchable list.
But even though Barnes lowered property taxes during his first and only term, I have reason to believe that this logical tax increase would have become a reality had Gov. Barnes been elected to a second term. Maybe not real early in his term with the economy down and gas prices on the rise, but during his term nonetheless.
But we know that he did not get reelected, and thus this logical tax increase did not come about.
With Democrat Gov. Miller having lowered sales taxes by exempting groceries, Democrat Gov. Barnes having lowered property taxes, what in the world would Republican Perdue do in the way of proposing his own tax reductions.
As we remember, rather than continuing to please the masses, Gov. Perdue temporarily suffered amnesia and forgot them that brung him to the Gold Dome. Rather than cutting, his first major proposal involved raising taxes. And it wasn’t just going to be to get King Roy back by raising the property taxes that Barnes had cut.
The new governor also wanted to increase revenue for the state by reducing the consumption of taxable evil products. (Say what Gov.? Easy, says he; I propose increasing taxes on cigarettes and liquor as a way to help balance the state budget and, at the same time, dissuade Georgians from buying alcohol and tobacco.)
We recall that a compromise in Perdue’s proposed tax increase ultimately did prevail.
But with Barnes not having been reelected and since then not having someone in the governor's mansion that would bite the bullet and get down what needed to be done, the chance of getting an increase in our state’s motor fuel tax has indeed been put off until another day.
_______________
As noted above, thank you for the kind words Travis. And for those of you who are not following Travis's blog Lucid Idiocy, you are missing much.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 1:07 PM
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