State Poised to Double Gas and Diesel Taxes in Wake of Proposal One Debacle

The State Senate voted to raise gas taxes 15 cents per gallon over the next three years,and diesel fuel taxes by 18 cents per gallon over that same period.  Current taxes are 19 cents and 16 cents per gallon respectively.  Though the proposal falls short of doubling the gas tax, diesel taxes are more than doubled in the bill, which now heads to the state house for their approval.  Read more specifics here.

Less than two months ago a convoluted proposal meant to raise the sales tax and change a host of other state revenue generation was put before the voters in a May election... and summarily defeated by a four to one margin by the people.  At that time we heard from some state legislators that the mandate was clear, the people felt the 'road problems' Michigan faces could be corrected without raising taxes.  

Our state legislators are predominantly Republican, our executive leaders are Republican, a designation which has traditionally led to fiscally conservative and responsible solutions to problems through tax-cutting and reformation, not by raising taxes. 

Yet evolving into a 19-19 deadlocked vote, which was not along straight party lines by any means, and leading to a tie-breaking "yes" vote by Lieutenant/Vice Governor William Calley (pictured to the left, one week ago in Ludington), we now stand on the cusp of doubling an already high state gas tax rate.  As you can see by the map, only six states were higher (as of five years ago):

In this Torch article against proposal 1, we compared Michigan road spending and results with Georgia and Wisconsin and discovered that even though our state has plenty more resources going towards the road problems, for some reason they cannot favorably compare with other states.  When will our legislators learn that it is not a money problem that hinders our roads, it's a leadership and efficiency problem?

Probably never, because they just cannot get through their thick skulls that 80% of the voters who went against proposal one's tax hike are cleverer than over 50% of them.

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I haven't seen or heard how the new tax will be spent. I hope it all goes on road repair. If not then we need a new legislature and Governor. It's also time the income tax credit is eliminated. It's absolutely absurd to have people getting tax refunds who never paid taxes or who get back more than what they paid in.

In this 2013 Mlive article, it explains that if gas was $4.00 per gallon, the state would get $0.41 cents per gallon.  Nineteen cents of that is the gas tax which would be rededicated to MDOT and supposedly road projects (and municipal maritime museums, putting in curb cuts/taking out curb cuts, etc.), but $0.22 is from the state sales tax which goes elsewhere. 

As for the Earned Income Tax Credit, I have to side with Ronald Reagan on the issue. who said that it (and other policies in his 1986 tax reform) was "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress."   It provides a good incentive to work at unskilled labor rate rather than get on public welfare by rewarding you with a little extra wealth redistribution.  The state EITC, however, is rather insignificant compared to the federal, but still worth it in my opinion, because a family totally on the dole costs a lot more to support than the money for the EITC for a working poor family.

Back when Reagan was in charge that might have been the case, however, now days not only are people getting the tax credit but they are also on the dole along with a myriad of other give away support paid to them by the taxpayers. For those that do not earn a lot of money their benefit is paying less taxes or not paying any taxes at all. They should not benefit by receiving a gift from other hard working citizens. Not only is the earned income tax credit a scam but the child tax credit is a bunch of B.S. as well. Illegals are using these credits to steal money from us.

Mason County's two Michigan Senate Republicans (Darwin Booher and Goeff Hansen) both voted yes on this proposal, yet I couldn't find any news of this vote for tax hike on Goeff Hansen' webpage or Darwin Booher's page.  It seems that they trumpet their accomplishments in May is Reading Month activities and getting photo ops with the Asparagus Festival Queen, but don't want to let their constituents know they want to double their state fuel taxes.  Go figure. 

Ten of eleven Democrats voted against this oppressive tax hike, making them look fiscally conservative in comparison.

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