Gas Tax Yes, Oil Tax No
Taxing gas prices puts an immediate burden on motorists, although the profits tax may bring higher prices in the longer run. But the gas tax encourages conservation and maintains the incentive for new supply. Surely that is the superior approach.
Yep, I still think folks need to suck it up. We’re idiots for reversing all the progress towards fuel efficiency that was made during the 1970s oil crises. I count myself in that number, because I drive a vehicle that is significantly unoptimized to the tasks I need it to perform. As much as I want that Dodge Magnum with the big-ass Hemi, I’m not going to be buying one.
What boggles my mind is that they’re actually talking about repealing or rolling back gas taxes. It’s just stunning that people could think that that’s a good idea these days.
May 1st, 2006 at 17:30Doesn’t surprise me a bit, Brad. Most state and local representatives are coming in close on election day, and what better pillory target than Big Oil? None, really … it crosses party lines. It’s easy to make hay, and people don’t understand enough about what their taxes do that it becomes an issue.
So, let’s make the theoretical construct for a second that windfall profits are taxed [and this would be double taxation, as corporate income is taxed]. Let’s say we lop off $30B/yr. off the top of the oil companies’ take. Divide that over 300MM Americans, and … just not a whole lot of money, really.
I honestly welcome high gas prices for two reasons: increased pressures on public transportation and a push for alternate fuel sources. What sense does it make for me and 5,000 other Madisonians—I’m just throwing that number out there; it’s probably low—to commute into and out of Huntsville every day? Give me a bus or a nearby train station to which I can walk, and I’ll do it.
May 1st, 2006 at 17:41The $100 tax credit proposal is the worst idea of all, as it is untargeted, could be used to buy anything, and would also go to those that don’t even drive. As a capitalist, free market type, taxing corporations for making a profit, no matter how big, is also the wrong thing to do – after all, everyone’s in business to make as much $ as possible and there’s nothing wrong with that. The post is right – we just have to suck it up. People are fast to blame politicians and oil companies, but very slow to reconize fault in their own energy burning behavior. We can’t expect Washington to solve our problems until we become part of the solution – and that means passing up on the Hemi.
May 1st, 2006 at 20:39I guess I’m just libertarian enough to think that *any* tax relief is good tax relief. I’m not in favor of the $100 credits – that’s just cheesy. Instead of giving us our money back, let us keep it in the first place. In general, I just don’t like the idea of taxation as a means to discourage “bad” behavior.
May 2nd, 2006 at 08:03The “let me keep my money” argument works only so far. Instead, let’s focus on the relative growth of gasoline taxes [relatively to nearly flat federally, and flat mostly on the state and local levels] compared to the cost of road construction [skyrocketing]. When you consider that gasoline taxes were originally intended to foment the development of American’s roadway infrastructure but now, unfortunately, do not seem to keep up with the expenses, well … something needs to happen. In some states, that’s going to be toll roads.
In terms of taxation discouraging bad behavior, I prefer to think of it as tax policy shaping positive economic outcomes in this case.
[You might well argue that I'm ignoring the fact that road miles driven are ever-increasing and fuel economy has been holding steady or decreasing, which leads to more gallons of gasoline being bought and, therefore, increases in tax collections; while I concur that this is happening, I have a hunch that the roadway infrastructure doesn't keep up. I know this to be true here in Alabama.]
May 2nd, 2006 at 09:55