Fitzsimon File

The state gas tax is going up 2.8 cents a gallon Monday. That’s around 50 cents more every time you fill up the tank, $15 or $20 a year for most motorists, as the Governor’s office points out.

One news headline about the increase said “lawmakers raise gas tax,” which is not true.  The state gas tax is indexed to the wholesale price and is automatically adjusted twice a year.  Lawmakers don’t vote on the tax every six months.

But the increase has prompted demands for Governor Easley to call a special session of the General Assembly to prevent the tax hike and look at suspending or decreasing the state tax on home heating fuel.

Some of the sentiment is understandable, but most of the clamor is simply more knee-jerk sound-bite politics that distract policy makers from the real issues facing the state.

Governor Easley, to his credit, has already announced a $10 million program to help families who are struggling to pay winter heating bills. If that is not enough, the state should find more money to help.

The gas tax is a much different matter. The state would lose $135 million if the tax does not increase as scheduled, money that goes to build and maintain highways.  The cost of road construction continues to increase, which is why lawmakers voted to index the state tax in the first place.

Many of the same legislators now upset about the increase also complain that their district doesn’t get enough highway funding, or that projects already scheduled take too long to complete.

The state is now in the process of authorizing toll roads because the state highway budget has fallen so far behind. There is a huge backlog of maintenance projects to repair highways and bridges. 

It is true that North Carolina has a higher gas tax than other Southeastern states, but often left out of stories about the tax is that most other states don’t use a gas tax to pay for a state highway system. Their roads are built by local tax dollars.

The issue also brings out the twisted logic of those who oppose any tax for virtually any purpose.  Rep. Cary Allred told his local paper that the state shouldn’t be allowed to benefit from the largesse of the oil companies.

The benefit of the gas tax doesn’t go to the state. It goes to the people and businesses that use state roads everyday. 

There is merit in lawmakers looking at the gas tax in next summer’s legislative session, but only as part of a long overdue reassessment of state transportation policy that should include more emphasis on public transit where feasible.

Simply capping the gas tax in a hastily called special session would do nothing but slow down highway projects further and fuel the anti-tax demagoguery that already distorts the policy debate.

The crisis in North Carolina is not a 2.8-cent increase in the state gas tax. It is the cloud of the ethics scandal hanging over the Capitol, a situation that has shaken public confidence in their government.  Why are no lawmakers calling for a special session to address that?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.