Gas Tax

ANNAPOLIS -- Don't think of it as a gas tax. Think of it as a "jobs" bill.Truckers, gas station dealers, engineers, highway contractors, asphalt firms, sand and gravel companies, business groups and county executives lined up yesterday in support of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's proposal to raise Maryland's 18.5-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax to 23.5 cents a gallon.In different ways, almost all of them said the same thing: Raising the gas tax will jump-start the state's stalled highway construction industry, and that in turn will stimulate the state's recession-weary economy.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday announced plans to speed up $88 million in highway construction projects to boost Maryland's economy, but aides said the plan could hinge on the legislature approving a nickel increase in the gasoline tax."If we advertise for bids now, these jobs can be out on the street as soon as the Department of Transportation has the money to fund them," Governor Schaefer said in a written statement. "We can put hundreds of Marylanders back to work immediately."Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer said his agency will immediately begin advertising 69 maintenance and repair projects for bid under the governor's proposal.

In the past week, momentum has been building in Annapolis to raise the gasoline tax. It is now the most-favored tax of state legislators as they try to cope with a $1.5 billion deficit over the next 17 months. But politicians ought to resist their initial temptation to siphon off this new revenue source for budget-balancing purposes. Gas-tax money is supposed to be used for transportation programs, and that's where the money should remain.Two plans are now afloat. One, sponsored by Gov. William Donald Schaefer, would raise the gas tax by a nickel, to 23.5 cents a gallon.

ANNAPOLIS -- Don't think of it as a gas tax. Think of it as a "jobs" bill.Truckers, gas station dealers, engineers, highway contractors, asphalt firms, sand and gravel companies, business groups and county executives lined up yesterday in support of Gov. William Donald Schaefer's proposal to raise Maryland's 18.5-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax to 23.5 cents a gallon.In different ways, almost all of them said the same thing: Raising the gas tax will jump-start the state's stalled highway construction industry, and that in turn will stimulate the state's recession-weary economy.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer has announced plans to speed up $88 million in highway construction projects to boost Maryland's economy, but aides said the plan could hinge on the legislature approving a nickel increase in the gasoline tax."If we advertise for bids now, these jobs can be out on the street as soon as the Department of Transportation has the money to fund them," Governor Schaefer said yesterday in a written statement. "We can put hundreds of Marylanders back to work immediately."

THE RECENT STORMS drenching this state -- and closing major roads, transit systems and rail lines -- provided a graphic reminder of Marylanders' reliance on the state's transportation network. If there's any issue on which state leaders ought to truly take a "One Maryland" approach, ought to forge a statewide vision, it's transportation. The time for that is now: Maryland transportation funding -- more than $10 billion short of the needs identified by the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. through 2010 -- is deep into a full-blown crisis.

Highways are often regarded as the ultimate example of user-financed government. Motorists pay a variety of fees, from state and federal taxes on fuel to titling and registration fees on vehicles, to pay for their construction and maintenance. But are roads truly self-sustaining? A new study says absolutely not. Researcher Mark A. Delucchi of the University of California, Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies recently looked at the nation's total expenditures on roads and compared the result with the total collected in highway-related taxes and fees.

Business leaders joined Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller yesterday in pushing for an increase in the gas tax to pay for new roads and mass transit, though support for his proposal to raise the levy by 12 cents-a- gallon was not universal. Miller said he does not expect his plan, which would raise the current rate by 50 percent and tie future increases to inflation, to pass during the current General Assembly session. But he testified during a hearing before the Budget and Taxation Committee yesterday that the state needs $400 million to $600 million a year in additional funding to meet its needs.

The specter of paying higher state taxes in the near future has given rise to a familiar chorus in cyberspace: Call them the "That's the final straw, I'm moving to Pennsylvania" singers. Mostly, the group's members grumble anonymously on the Internet, posting messages of anger and betrayal. They are unhappy to see government once again reaching deeply into their pockets (to phrase it far more politely than the typical posting). It's not enough for them to express irritation. These unhappy - few, many, enough to field a baseball team, it's hard to say - believe their lives will improve vastly if they haul out their luggage, pack up the good china and leave.

Insuring children really does pay off As pediatricians, we see the human benefit of the State Children's Health Insurance Program every day for the patients and families who come to our clinics. We were therefore dismayed to learn of the Bush administration's recent attempts to restrict the program ("U.S. rules threaten aid to children," Aug. 23). Limiting eligibility for insurance and increasing waiting periods for care are barriers that prevent children from getting the health care they need.

One might think that in the depths of a recession that has governments across the country slashing expenses and ordering layoffs and furloughs, a proposal for a $4.6 billion widening of Interstate 270 from Montgomery County to Frederick with four toll lanes would be dismissed out of hand by elected officials. After all, construction on the $2.6 billion Inter-county Connector to link Montgomery and Prince George's counties is still unfinished. In Howard County, officials are still waiting for state funding to widen northbound Route 29 by one lane approaching Columbia, and there's no money to widen Route 32 from Clarksville to Interstate 70 either.

The executive director of an influential group representing top transportation officials from around the country told a Greater Baltimore Committee summit Thursday that it is time for the United States to "grow up" and increase the federal tax on gasoline and other motor fuels. John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, warned that without new revenue, the U.S. transportation infrastructure faces a grim future. "We're in the soup," Horsley warned the gathering of Baltimore business leaders, transportation officials and civic activists.

Everyone wants better highways, safe bridges and more transit options - but nobody wants to pay for them. Last week, U.S. Secretary Ray LaHood acknowledged to a Senate committee that the federal Highway Trust Fund is not financially viable, but he said the Obama administration will not consider raising the federal gas tax to correct the problem. That's not a big surprise given the radioactive politics of the gas tax these days, but it's still disappointing - and confounding. As a candidate for office, Mr. Obama was at least serious about the trust fund's problems (he declined to endorse an ill-conceived gas tax holiday, as his opponents did)

Safeguard the trust before a gas tax hike Jay Hancock's recommendation that we increase the state's gas tax by a dime underscores the importance of creating a constitutional firewall to protect the transportation trust fund ("Maryland could lead the way by raising its gas tax," Feb 4). There is no denying the need Mr. Hancock cites to build a "21st-century transportation system." But more than $1 billion has been transferred from the fund over the past two decades into the general fund to help balance the state budget.

There is never a good time to raise taxes. But the stars of politics, markets, immediate requirements and long-term need are aligned as they have rarely been before to permit a modest increase in Maryland's gasoline tax. An extra dime per gallon would make Maryland's gas tax only a penny more than Pennsylvania's, generate more than $300 million in badly needed annual revenue and give Maryland training wheels for the lower-carbon, made-in-the-USA energy...

What is the mood coming into the legislative session this year? We are very carefully optimistic. We've overcome much more severe crises in our state's history than what we consider a yearlong blip on our economic radar. ... I'm an historian, and I know what our country has gone through in the past, and this is nothing. It's a deep recession. We're not facing a world war, we're not facing a depression, we're not facing a plague. We can learn from it, and we can survive. How do you manage a projected revenue gap of $1.9 billion?

A gallon of gas costs less than $2, and Maryland's gasoline tax hasn't been raised for 15 years. But don't look for Howard County's State House delegation to lead the charge in Annapolis for a tax increase to prevent big cuts to commuter transit and highway projects. If the proposed Mass Transit Administration cuts become reality Jan. 12, scores of people who responded to $4-a-gallon gas by heeding the government's call to use mass transit will feel as though they've been thrown under a bus - if there is one. To counterbalance declining revenue, state officials are considering cutting $1 billion from transportation projects now and maybe twice that much later.

Commuter bus riders in Columbia say they feel as if they have been sucker-punched. Initially heartened by an O'Malley administration that promotes mass transit, many who spoke at a public hearing last week say they were blindsided by the state's plan to eliminate service to Baltimore and trim other routes in Howard County, starting Jan. 12. Ridership has spiked on the imperiled Routes 310 and 311, and commuters say they feel that by using mass transit,...

Bad news about the financial and economic crises just keeps coming, but in recent weeks there's been rare good news: a major drop in gasoline prices. In the short to medium term, it is true that falling oil prices are good for the economy. Everything from buying California grapefruits to operating school buses becomes cheaper when the price of gas goes down. Consumer confidence increases; people spend money; the economy is boosted. But there is a dark side to declining oil prices and the resulting short-term economic benefits: The public and policymakers will breathe a collective sigh of relief that the energy crisis has passed, and gratefully take that hot issue off the national agenda.

An Iowa-based research center is looking for 450 Baltimore-area motorists willing to have their every driving move tracked by satellite to test a system that could theoretically replace the federal gasoline tax with road use fees. The federally funded study will use a global positioning system satellite to track not only the mileage driven over eight months, but also whether each road traveled is funded by the state, federal or local governments. Participants will receive a simulated bill each month for the road use fee owed to each level of government.