Here in Washington State, there is an initiative in the November Ballot to repeal a 9.5 cent a gallon gas tax increase. It was a small miracle that it is on this ballot. The legislature tacked an emergency clause on the bill making it hard to repeal. We had 30 days to gather about 225,000 signatures. We didn’t get 225,000, we got something like 412,000. It woke up the establishment.
Since this blog is not primarily focused on WA state issues, I’m not going to go into the pros and cons of the issue. I’m for the initiative to repeal the tax. However, that’s not what I’m going to talk about. I want to talk about who is supporting the tax and who isn’t and why it’s part of a broader discussion.
We are told by our friends on the left that they represent the little guy. Working families is the catch phrase they often like to use as opposed non-working families I guess. It should be obvious to anyone who can count that getting almost double the required numbers to get a measure on the ballot means a lot of little guys (there were no paid signature gatherers) thought the tax was unfair and didn’t solve any real traffic problems.
The Governor, who promised to fight against raising the gas tax, sheparded this through the legislature as soon as she was sworn in after winning on a questionable third count with only 129 votes.
All that to introduce my main point. The average donor to those FOR the gas tax increase shelled out around $9000. The average donor to those who want to repeal the tax gave $38 dollars. The contributors for the gas tax are big business and big liberals. The contributors for the repeal are guys like me, average Joe working stiffs. Guys getting paid by the hour and have houses and families and 2nd mortgages. Guys that see no end in sight to the voracious and rapacious appetite of the government.
The pro gas tax people include the Democratic Party, The Labor Unions, the liberal elite of Seattle and Tacoma along with road construction firms and almost every large employer in the state. I think you have the picture.
I’m just wondering and maybe connecting a few dots. The people telling us SUVs are bad own them and ride on private jets. The people telling me to like the gas tax can afford gas at whatever price.
There is an elite portion of our population that transcends party. Although the State Republican Party is against the tax, some Republicans are not – especially around Seattle. Here in the Puget Sound area, more often than not, they are Democrats and they are überliberal. A good portion of our gas tax money doesn’t go for road improvements or fixing congestion. Almost half goes toward mass transit. Some of you might think that is a good thing and maybe it is. However, according to the regional transit authority’s own figures, 30 years ago when spending started to tilt more and more toward transit, the percentage of daily trips on transit was 6%. With the ensuing billions poured into mass transit over the last three decades, ridership is now a whopping 3% of daily trips.
I guess what it all boils down to is if the Democrats are supposed to be for the little guy, why are they trying to tax me into debtor’s prison? I’m not real happy about some Republicans trying to spend more than they should either, but I damn sure don’t trust the Democrats to cut spending. If anything, they’ll spend more and raise taxes to boot!
I’m tired of a bunch of self-professed elitists in both parties telling me what is good for me by trying to take more and more of my hard earned pay for dubious, idiotic social schemes. You say you are for working families? Clue bat here!!!! I’m one of those!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!!
It’s not just the gas tax, it’s all of it. When is enough enough?
VW
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