My Gas Tax Proposal
I've been listening to the arguments against repealing the annual automatic gas tax increase, and I'm just astounded by the things I'm hearing! Supporters of the automatic increase are trying to paint us a picture. They want us to believe that our roads will fall apart if the automatic increase is repealed, as if there's no other way to cut the budget, or raise taxes to pay for road construction.
Some of the legislators fighting to keep the tax increase are proposing their own half-baked ideas on how to lower the cost of gasoline in this state. Primarily, they're pushing for more ethanol use. Well, I can't just sit idly by. I offer the following solution to the gas tax, gas prices, and a whole host of other issues. One bill to solve multiple problems, and please just about everyone!
1) Eliminate the automatic gas tax increase.
The rest of my proposal makes the increase obsolete.
2) Put more ethanol in our gasoline, and base the gas tax on the percent per volume of actual gasoline in the mix. As the gasoline content of a gallon of gas is diluted, the gas tax also decreases. Since taxes make up a huge portion of the cost of a gallon of gas, adding ethanol will finally lower the price of gas for real.
It will shut the ethanol lobby up. I also promise that if my price per mile drops significantly, I will never mention that I'm actually burning MORE gasoline because miles per gallon drop with ethanol gas. I will be HAPPY to let the environmentalists discover the impact the hard way! Serves them right for being so stubborn.
3) Put up tolls on the Illinois border.
There's no way to charge only Illinois drivers, that would be ideal. Instead, increase the toll 50% between Memorial Day and the end of hunting season. This would ensure that the Illinois drivers are paying a lion's share. It's the least we can do.
Additionally, once the road budget is taken care of for the year, CLOSE THE BORDER. No one without a Wisconsin ID gets in. By the third week of summer, the state parks will belong to us!
How can we lose with my proposal? The ethanol lobby gets it's check, and so do the road builders. We get lower gas prices and some reciprocity from our Friendly Illinois Brethren. And finally, the environmentalists get to remain blissfully ignorant.
Some of the legislators fighting to keep the tax increase are proposing their own half-baked ideas on how to lower the cost of gasoline in this state. Primarily, they're pushing for more ethanol use. Well, I can't just sit idly by. I offer the following solution to the gas tax, gas prices, and a whole host of other issues. One bill to solve multiple problems, and please just about everyone!
1) Eliminate the automatic gas tax increase.
The rest of my proposal makes the increase obsolete.
2) Put more ethanol in our gasoline, and base the gas tax on the percent per volume of actual gasoline in the mix. As the gasoline content of a gallon of gas is diluted, the gas tax also decreases. Since taxes make up a huge portion of the cost of a gallon of gas, adding ethanol will finally lower the price of gas for real.
It will shut the ethanol lobby up. I also promise that if my price per mile drops significantly, I will never mention that I'm actually burning MORE gasoline because miles per gallon drop with ethanol gas. I will be HAPPY to let the environmentalists discover the impact the hard way! Serves them right for being so stubborn.
3) Put up tolls on the Illinois border.
There's no way to charge only Illinois drivers, that would be ideal. Instead, increase the toll 50% between Memorial Day and the end of hunting season. This would ensure that the Illinois drivers are paying a lion's share. It's the least we can do.
Additionally, once the road budget is taken care of for the year, CLOSE THE BORDER. No one without a Wisconsin ID gets in. By the third week of summer, the state parks will belong to us!
How can we lose with my proposal? The ethanol lobby gets it's check, and so do the road builders. We get lower gas prices and some reciprocity from our Friendly Illinois Brethren. And finally, the environmentalists get to remain blissfully ignorant.
4 Amendments:
Don't give them the idea of putting more of that ethanol in my tank, my truck runs bad enough on this reformulated crap.
Sorry, Patrick.
If it'll cut my gas prices in half: I'll gladly take it up the tail pipe, so to speak.
It's got to be a noticable differnce though! Like I said, if cost per mile drops I'm out of complaints.
Regrets that part of your idea is impossible to implement.
Gas stations have underground tanks which are "dedicated"--one for regular, one for mid-grade, one for premium. They cannot switch the formulas in the underground tanks.
Now if you were to propose eliminating mid-grade and switching it to 85% Corn-a-Hole, that would be do-able.
What would be fun to watch would be the pricing. Last year I visited Iowa and found Corn-a-Hole at about $1.20/gal, while regular was at $1.85.
But the Wisconsin Corn-a-Hole pushers only talk about a FEW cents/gallon difference in price--maybe 10%.
What's the matter with THAT picture?
I've explained the pricing once before. Wisconsin insists on having its very own blend of corn gas. I think we do things to it to please all the lobbyists in this state: add a little milk, have it blessed by a teacher, do a tribal dance around the distilling column, etc...
If all states used the same blend, price per gallon might go down. But, it's price per mile that really matters to our pocketbooks.
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