Gas Tax Should Be Raised Significantly

There is no doubt that the roads and bridges in Texas and the United States are in need of serious repair. For the last few years, Republicans both on the state and national level have been only interested in cutting taxes for their rich friends, and have ignored our crumbling infrastructure.

Now we are left with overcrowded highways full of potholes and bridges on the verge of collapse. It is obvious that something must be done.

A congressional committee was assigned to determine what should be done. The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission has now reported its findings. Like it or not, this committee says we must bite the bullet and raise the national gas tax by 25-40 cents a gallon. The federal tax is currently 18.4 cents a gallon.

They further said the states should also raise their portion of the gas tax. Currently, Texas has a 20 cent a gallon tax.

The committee is right. We cannot ignore our infrastructure any longer. I believe we should raise both the federal and the state gas tax by 25 cents a gallon for each.

This would add 50 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas, but it is needed. However, I would couple this rise in the gas tax with an absolute ban on new toll roads, including the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Of course our Republican leadership is howling over the proposed gas tax hikes. They would like voters to believe they are opposed to taxes being raised. That is a lie.

They are not opposed to imposing new taxes on Texas and United States citizens. They just want to hide their tax raise by calling it a toll, and funneling it into the pockets of rich corporations instead of using it to build new (free) roads and repairing older roads and bridges.

The truth is that their hidden toll tax would actually cost ordinary citizens more than an honest raising of the gas tax, and it would provide less in the repairing and modernizing of our infrastructure.

It is time to stop believing the Republican lies while paying their exorbitant hidden taxes. It is time to significantly raise the gas tax, ban all new toll roads and rebuild our infrastructure.