Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Motor fuel taxes are needed to rebuild our nation’s roads
We haven’t heard much lately about a “gas tax holiday.” That’s probably because reality has set in — even at the national political level.
As gas taxes were rising, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton were calling for a federal “gas tax holiday,” to give consumers a break by temporary repealing federal motor fuel taxes.
It was a bad idea for a couple of reasons. No. 1 is the fact that we depend on the motor fuel tax to pay for much-needed road and bridge repairs. No. 2 is that the temporary repeal of the tax wouldn’t have saved consumers much money.
In addition, there is another reason why it would be difficult to forgo the revenue raised by the gas tax — jobs. If the tax reduction plan would have gone into effect, the federal government would have had $9 billion less to spend.
And people who ordinarily work on road projects could have been laid off for lack of funds.
U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastruc-ture committee, teamed up with Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the highway subcommittee, to produce an estimate of job loss without that $9 billion.
On the low end, it included $30 million less and 1,000 jobs lost in Vermont. At the high end, it would have meant $664 million less and 23,000 lost highway jobs in California.
Besides the job loss, we just need to spend the time and money improving our highway infrastructure. In downtown Milwaukee, the massive Marquette Interchange, the place where Interstates 94 and 43 come together, is under-going an extensive reconstruction.
When that project is done, Interstate 94 needs to be reconstructed between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line. That’s because those freeways are 30 years old and in need of replacement. Those projects will costs billions of dollars.
There are similar reconstruction needs throughout the country. They will cost big money. Instead of suspending the gas tax, the more realistic answer might be a tax increase to help pay for the repairs and the reconstruction. That’s what Congress is considering for the federal motor fuel tax. And that makes sense because the tax directly affects those who use the highways.
It’s also interesting that the gas tax story ran on the Sunday Tribune’s front page — right next to an update about the West Avenue reconstruction project — which affects a major La Crosse South Side artery.
To keep our roads and bridges safe and functional, we need a little realism — not a pie-in-the-sky promise for a “tax holiday.”
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