Here’s the first in a series of Village 14 Blog polls related to the question on the Nov. 4 statewide ballot.
Question one would eliminate the requirement that the state’s gasoline tax, which was 24 cents per gallon as of September 2013, (1) be adjusted every year by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index over the preceding year, but (2) not be adjusted below 21.5 cents per gallon.
[polldaddy poll=”8382464″]
Oops. Reading on my phone without expanding text, I just voted yes when I meant to vote no.
I will be voting YES on 1, YES to Repeal the Automatic Gas Tax Increases. There are many reasons why I will vote YES on 1, and I will elaborate on two of them:
1. If the legislature wants to raise the gas tax, the legislature should be forced to go on record and take a recorded vote in order to raise the gas tax. We pay them $60K+ annually plus per diems in order to make the tough votes on issues of governance.
2. Only about one-third of the “2013-14 Transportation Finance Bill” actually went to fund transportation expenses. We shouldn’t reward government for lying to its citizens.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20130918/News/309189340
I am also proud to say I was one of many fiscally responsible taxpayers in the Commonwealth that collected signatures to help get this question on the ballot.
I agree with Joshua Norman. Is pushing a Yea button each year at the Statehouse that exhausting? Cowardly governing.
I will now go back to disagreeing with Joshua Norman…
I think it is important to keep in mind that indexing is NOT the same as raising. Indexing the gas tax merely allows it to keep up with inflation… ie keeps it THE SAME over time, in terms of purchasing power. Social security is indexed… imagine if seniors had to depend on Congress to vote to increase social security benefits to keep up with inflation.
From wikipedia: “inflation reflects a reduction in the purchasing power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange and unit of account within the economy.”
By not indexing the gas tax, we will see the amount of $ available to maintain our roads and bridges go down over time. And it’s not like they’re in great shakes – 19% of our roads are in poor quality, and 52% of our bridges are considered “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete.”
And note – as cars get more fuel efficient, we are all buying less gas. That is good for the climate, but not great for transportation funding. (Though it means you’ll be paying less in gas taxes, even with indexing!)
But imagine if minimum wage workers had to rely on lawmakers to increase wages… It’s part of their job! Repealing indexing does not in itself suggest gas taxes will lag inflation.
Minimum wage workers do have to rely on lawmakers to increase wages… and that’s a bad thing. That’s why people can work a full time job and still be forced to rely on government assistance to survive. (So we’re paying it anyway…)
Hoss, the Democrat controlled legislature is very cowardly. They want to raise taxes, but don’t want to go on record to the voters as voting to raise taxes.
Emily, unfortunately, the legislature takes the tax money that they promised for roads, bridges & other infrastructure and spent it elsewhere. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Massachusetts spends $1.86 Billion on taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens, which is over 150X the amount of money that Massachusetts will raise in 2015 with the automatic gas tax.
Reason #3 as to why I oppose the automatic gas tax: In addition to Massachusetts wasting $1.86 Billion annually on lavish taxpayer-funded benefit packages for illegal aliens, it wasted another $2.04 Billion on mismanagement & corruption
http://www.tankthegastax.org/tax-dollars-wasted/
I didn’t understand this ballot question at first and miss voted. Now I get it. The automatic increase is law and needs to be repealed.
I did look up the financial statements for support and opposition to this ballot question.
$67.5 thousand have been raised to repeal it. $952 thousand have been raised to continue the law. Some of the biggest donors to sustain the law are construction and asphalt companies as well as engineering firms, $300,000. I believe the law should be repealed. No automatic annual increases.
I don’t care who funds the four questions because we know they all have outside funding. Instead, I look at who benefits from the passage or repeal of the issue the question addresses. So many bridges in the state are in such terrible disrepair that they present a public safety concern, so anyone who drives over a bridge or has a family member, or friend who drives over one, benefits from the passage of Question One. It has my vote.
If contemporary lawmakers want to sign a legal statement saying they agree to automatic proxy vote for tax increases to a particular state operation over their term in gov’t, that would be somewhat fine. But here we have contemporary lawmakers signing a proxy for each and every future lawmaker saying no need to look at financial efficiency, fraud, or abuse, my signature has you covered — that is not fine.
Jane — you seem confident that automatic proxy votes get more funding than standing in front of the podium and suggesting funding. The old overused statement of “taxation without representation” is both accurate here and works against the kind of funding you desire.
Maybe it’s too late to think straight, or maybe just I’m missing something. If the voters approve a referendum, how is that taxation without representation?
@What Jane said.
Jane — If you and the rest of the no voters outlive it’s place in law, that means it will eventually be repealed, or you’ll outlive Massachusetts. In terms of my desire for checks and balances on gov’t departments in Mass, sounds like you might be on to something.
Reason #4 as to why I will vote YES on 1 (H/T to Brian Kennedy):
*Background:* Last year the legislature passed a change to the tax law that ties the gas tax to inflation (the Consumer Price Index or CPI) and *automatically* increases it each year.
What it means long term is that everything you buy will increase in price, because everything you buy needs to be transported on a vehicle that uses gas. When the cost of goods goes up, so does the CPI. When the CPI goes up, so will the gas tax – WITHOUT a vote of the legislature.
Essentially this is a self-feeding tax, because the tax increases the price of goods, which increases the size of the tax, which then increases the price of goods again. The taxes levied by this CPI-based increase also do not go to the roads, they go to the general fund, which means they are less focused than the present gas tax which explicitly goes to roads.
YES VOTE: Specifically repeals the CPI-adjusted *automatic* increase in the tax. Will require the legislature to vote each time they want to increase that tax, and sets the precedent against future CPI-adjusted taxes.
NO VOTE: Retains the automatic increase, sets the precedent for future automatically increasing taxes, and within 10 years will dramatically increase the cost of living for all residents.
I urge you to VOTE YES ON 1.