We Coloradans quietly accept inflation for cars, houses, food, even property taxes. When it comes to the gasoline tax we get completely irrational. Our 22 cents per gallon tax has gone unchanged since 1991.
Have highway construction costs stayed the same since 1991? Obviously not, in fact they have increased 327%, according to a Colorado Department of Transportation report dated January 22, 2009.
This means that our “1991 gasoline tax” will build and maintain less than a third of the highways and bridges that it did in 1991.
Is there any surprise that our roads and bridges are falling apart? What will it take for us all to wake up, a catastrophic failure such as happened in Minnesota?
Just to keep up with inflation our gasoline tax should be 72 cents per gallon! When are we going to understand that urban society is expensive and that we have been playing ostrich for decades?
Our politicians won’t lead because we won’t follow! They are acting rationally in the face of public irrationality because an irrational public will vote them out of office if they increase the gasoline tax.
The governor’s transportation panel gave four packages of tax and/or fee increases. Many measures have been proposed, most trying to avoid making the hard decisions that are required.
Among the worse, adding devices to cars to measure miles driven at some undetermined cost for each vehicle and a new bureaucracy to do the billing. We already do this with the gasoline tax!!!
Administrators complain that revenue falls off with increasing mileage for energy efficient cars. This can be handled by indexing an increase in the tax as the miles per gallon drop.
A sunset provision could be included so that when the average miles per gallon for the car population reaches a fixed number, the index in no longer used. As miles driven drop and cars get lighter in years ahead, highway funds needed will decrease.
The gasoline tax is paid by those who use our highways and is proportional to each person’s individual use. It costs not a single penny more to collect a 72 cent per gallon gasoline tax than a 22 cent per gallon gasoline tax.
The gasoline tax must be indexed to the Colorado Construction Cost Index so it automatically adjusts for inflation, just like cost of living raises. The time to increase the gasoline tax is now, while the price is reasonably low because when the economy improves again and the price of crude oil goes up again, no one will want to increase the tax.
The increase may be phased in over a two year time frame so it doesn’t hit everyone all at once. The Denver Post printed four letters last January about paying for road repairs. The letters said “increase the gasoline tax,” so some people are beginning to “get it”.
Miles driven fell when the recent spike in gasoline prices happened, which is a good thing. When our demand falls off, the price falls as we can see at present, as well as during past price spikes.
Now that the price is much lower, gas guzzler sales have increased. We can reduce gasoline consumption just as OPEC did with its peak oil price this past summer by an increase in the gasoline tax.
This will encourage people to buy cars with better mileage, make alternative fuels planning and production possible and reduce imported oil.
An increased Colorado gasoline tax coupled with an increase in the federal gasoline tax will reduce our imports of foreign oil.
Alan Greenspan suggested a federal tax of $3.00 per gallon in his recent book. In Europe they have been paying much more for decades. He also stated that Iraq was about the oil, as we all know.
The increased gasoline tax will stay in this country, and rebuild our roads, highways and bridges. Now we are living on imported oil, which rewards those who harbor terrorists and is a serious tax on our economy, paid to other countries, in part to those we are fighting.
Tell Governor Ritter and your Colorado senators and assembly men to increase Colorado’s gasoline tax. It’s the right thing to do.
Gordon W. Brown lives in Lone Tree. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
