An interesting commentary last week addressed the need for improving several local roadways. Surprisingly though, the otherwise conservative commentary blamed the Democrats as too reluctant to spend money! The typical caricature of our political parties is that the liberal Democrats want to spend and tax, while the conservative Republicans want to lower taxes and have less government spending. Economic realities, though, mean that to get things that you want you need money. This commentary made me wonder if our region would be supportive of raising our taxes to improve our roadways – or would we be opposed to all tax increases.
Of course, the federal government does not have to balance its budget, and has been spending much more money than it takes in. Legislators currently are actively debating plans to spend massive amounts of money without much discussion about where that money would come from. The obvious answer is it will print more money and add to the national debt. The national debt is exceeding revenue at levels not seen since WWII – meaning we are pushing the economic burden out to the future (and our kids and grandkids will certainly not be thanking us).
In contrast, Virginia is forbidden to have its budget in debt. But, as gasoline prices have risen, so have calls to remove the state tax on gasoline. This tax is used for road maintenance and construction – and could be used to help improve our local roadways. Gasoline costs now include about 32 cents per gallon going to Virginia, and about another 18 cents per gallon going to the federal government. We could save about 50 cents per gallon if both governments suddenly stopped these charges – which also would mean that our roadways would have few funds to keep them from disintegrating.
In Virginia, gas taxes increase over time to keep pace with inflation– a different situation than with the federal government. The federal tax was last changed in 1993, and if that tax had kept up with inflation today it would be about 42 cents per gallon. Anyone driving almost anywhere in the U.S. can see that our roads and bridges need help. Our revenues have not kept up with costs of repair and needed improvements. Of course, any politician voting to restore the relative tax on gas to 1993 levels would surely lose many votes!
Wouldn’t it be great if our legislators advocating for improvements also identified where the money should come from? Should it be from a new tax, or a raised tax? Should it be from existing funds, taking them away from some other uses? For our local road situation, do our advocates want to raise taxes? Or do they want for us to be given the funds by not using them somewhere else in the state? It would be helpful for our local legislators to fully discuss these issues publicly. Is it likely that our region would support raising taxes to fund needed improvements? If instead we should be prioritized for being given existing state funds, who would no longer be receiving funds? Is our region the neediest in the state? And are decisions being made in a bipartisan manner based on need and effectiveness, or is there another decision-making process driving the selection of projects deserving funding? Very helpful would be to have our representatives clarify our situation, giving voters information to decide if they should support taxes to improve our roads and other infrastructure. Unhelpful is complaining about taxes and yet also complaining about not having enough tax dollars to fix their own situation. Roads can’t be improved without paying for them.
