Ready for more taxes?
If Creigh Deeds is elected Governor, one of his first acts will be to raise the gas tax. Right now, families in Virginia are already tightening their budgets, and one more tax will definitely add to the stress.
Advertisement
Posted on August 18, 2009, in Virginia Politics and tagged 2009 Election, Creigh Deeds, Governor, Taxes, Virginia. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
It is not like McDonnell is not going to raise increased revenue for transportation. He just proposes doing so by putting up tollbooths on existing, paid for highways.
Trucking organizations like the ATA (American Trucking Associations) and the OOIDA (Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association) think fuel taxes are the fairest most efficient method of raising increased revenue. Nearly a third of the money collected in tolls goes towards paying for the cost of collecting the tolls while 99 cents out of every dollar collected in fuel taxes ends up the Highway Trust Fund.
While the above trucking industry organizations might be dismissed as having conflicted interests in the issue, Thomas J. Donohue who is president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also holds the position that increased fuel taxes are the preferred method of raising increased revenue when such increases are justified.
Much of McDonnell’s transportation plan has little chance for realization. For example, putting a tollbooth on I-85 at the North Carolina border would require federal approval and there is no way he would get such approval. Such a tollbooth would amount to a tax targeted at the interstate trucking industry to pay for highway improvements elsewhere in the state. The feds still seem to realize there is a constitution. It would be unconstitutional for Virginia to tax interstate commerce.