Legislators wary of quick fix on transportation - Report

By: aznew
Published On: 3/5/2008 10:34:01 AM

From the Martinsville Bulletin:

Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Collinsville, the House minority leader, said Tuesday he thinks it is unlikely a meaningful solution can be reached by Saturday, especially considering that the General Assembly has spent much of the session debating payday lending. He added that he thinks a special assembly session probably will have to be called on the transportation issue.
Armstrong said he thinks the legislature should not be passing the buck to localities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to tax themselves to fund transportation improvements. "It's a statewide issue," he said.
Armstrong said one option might be for the General Assembly to levy the taxes for the transportation improvements in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

But then Armstrong goes on to add:

Armstrong also said that if other sources of revenue are looked at, he opposes an increase in the gasoline tax because gas already is expensive. ...Armstrong said he fears that with the repeal of the abusive driver fees by the General Assembly, "that doesn't leave much for our part of Virginia. What started out as inadequate is now woefully inadequate." He said sustainable revenue is needed.

http://www.martinsvillebulleti...

Comments



Uh-oh (Eric - 3/5/2008 11:01:29 AM)
I don't like the sound of that.  On the positive side he's thinking about taxes (a necessary evil to fund transportation) but then he follows it with highly questionable logic about gasoline taxes.  

Yes, he's absolutely correct that gasoline is expensive.  But raising some other tax, say the sales tax, will only make other products more expensive in order to keep gasoline lower.  From an overall cash-in-hand perspective, it won't make any difference to most Virginians whether they pay a gasoline tax or a sales tax.  We'll be paying tax money to the state no matter which approach - so it doesn't matter what specifically is taxed.

Which brings me to the "uh-oh".  The only way his statement makes real sense is if the taxes he's talking about are some sort of specialty tax that'll target a small segment of the population.  Which is exactly how the GA got us into the Abusive Fees and Unconstitutional taxes in the first place - they started playing taxation games and trying gimmick solutions.  

Let's not go down that road again.  Just increase the gasoline tax.  If the Republicans say no, cancel the rest of the session and we go without funding because of the obstructionist, anti-tax ideologue Republicans.



I couldn't really figure out what he was saying (aznew - 3/5/2008 12:43:57 PM)
There are many problems with a "specialty tax," but the main one is that how could you raise enough? And there is always the issue of whether it would be self-sustaining, or by its nature would end up changing behavior (depending upon what was taxed).

Among the many problems with the abusive driver fees were that they weren't going to raise the revenue the GA claimed they would raise.

So, if any tax that could raise enough is off the table, what is left? I guess the remaining alternatives are to reduce spending in the entire state to get NoVa what it needs, or leave NoVa to fend for itself.

Perhaps the answer lies in some sort of statewide tax, the imposition of which would be dependent upon NoVa and Hampton Road localities first raising some revenue on their own.

I don't know -- throwing something out there.