As painful as higher gas prices are, Vermonters have proven their
ability to function with gas at $3 and $4 a gallon. People learned to
drive less, drive slower and carpool.
Creating a gas tax of 30 to 50 cents a gallon now would go a long way
towards cutting that state budget shortfall. Creative legislators
and/or political leaders could structure such a tax so that its total
amount is proportionately tied to the price per gallon of gas or per
barrel of crude oil.
Such a sun-setting gas tax would function as an emergency fundraiser as
long as the price of gas remains relatively low and would then diminish
as the price rises again.
In 2003 Vermonters used 353,538,000 gallons. Taxing 350 million gallons
of gas at 50 cents a gallon would raise $175,000,000 in a year or
$87,500,000 in six months. Taxing that projected annual fuel
consumption at 40 cents a gallon would raise $140,000,000 in a year or
$70,000,000 in six months.
A gas tax might not need to start that high. Or it could start at 50 cents a gallon and go down every quarter for a year.
Coupled with tapping in to the state's rainy day fund, this would allow
the state to fully fund its most essential programs, raise funds to pay
for transportation infrastructure -- including creating more public
transportation -- and also allow the state to refrain from pillaging
the state education fund.
No one likes raising taxes and no one liked $4 a gallon gas, but it
cannot be denied that the drop to $1.75 per gallon eased everyone's
wallets a little bit. Paying $2.10 or $2.30 would be doable, for 3
months or 6 months or 12 months, and it could help the state avoid
increasing the income tax or the sales tax.
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