Vermont Committee Approves Higher Gas Tax
By PAT BRADLEY
3:52
The Vermont House Transportation Committee has approved a gasoline tax increase to be phased in over two years.
The committee voted 10 to nothing, with one member absent, to approve a 2-cent sales tax increase on gasoline to take effect in June. The revenues would be used for highway and infrastructure maintenance and improvements. Some business groups are adamantly opposed to the increase. The Vermont chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business says 94 percent of respondents to a survey oppose raising the per-gallon tax. The Vermont Petroleum Association and the Vermont Grocers’ Association have collected more than 10-thousand petition signatures opposing the gasoline tax increase. Joe Choquette is the lobbyist for the Vermont Petroleum Association.
The Black River Quick Stop in Springfield, Vermont is near the New Hampshire border. Owner Peter Annis says when Vermont’s cigarette tax went up a few years ago he lost business to out-of-state competitors, and believes he will lose even more if the gas tax increases.
Small Dog Electronics CEO and Owner Don Mayer says the revenues from an increased gas tax are crucial and is pleased the House committee approved the proposal.
Peter Annis believes Vermont legislators do not need to impose a new tax to find needed revenues.
Under the proposal, the sales tax would go up another 2 cents in July of 2014.
According to the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, the current gas tax rate is 20-cents per gallon, and the diesel tax is 29 cents per gallon.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Audio: Higher gas tax approved
The Vermont House Transportation Committee has approved a gasoline tax increase to be phased in over two years. Black River Kwik Stop owner Peter Annis comments.
http://www.wamc.org/post/vermont-committee-approves-higher-gas-tax
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Great idea! Higher gas taxes to go along with all the jobs that aren't being created in VT. Oh, the sleepless nights the twits in the legislature must spend dreaming up ways to fleece what's left of the VT population!
ReplyDeleteYou got that right. they probably have to tax the gas to pay for their pay raises.
DeleteVermont has a very low unemployment rate, compared to the rest of the nation. Opportunity exists in Vermont! If we work together, as communities, Vermont can continue to be the most progressive state in the nation! Ahem... single payer health-care
ReplyDeletedot dot dot
Give it up, Seth. Hand the man another burning faggot and be done with him....
ReplyDeleteIf the gas tax is raised 2 cents, that would have increased my previous car's cost per mile from 60 cents to 62 cents, or about 3%. Since it got 40 mpg and I drove about 35,000 miles per year, my out-of-pocket cost would have been an extra $17.50. Oh, the agony of higher taxes!!!
But, let's look at the elephant in the room nobody talks about: at an actual cost of 60 cents per mile to operate my car, that 35,000 cost me twenty-one thousand dollars! And I'm going to complain about another $18.75??
People who look at what their car is costing them might want to get smart. I can take a bus to just about any town along the Connecticut for 6 bucks round-trip, and it saves me $1.50 in gas alone. Things have gotten to the point where it would make a lot of sense to have an even better public transportation system. Rather than having cars rule our lives, we could flex our personal schedules to take advantage of a far cheaper way to get around. And then there are bicycles...
That said the gasoline tax is not a good tax; it falls on the lower classes far too heavily, especially the middle quintile (average $34,150), who already pay the highest total tax rate of all households-- 10.4%. I don't see any way of shifting it to the group that pays the lowest total tax rate of 8%, which happens to average $782,000 a year.
It's shown over and over again, that the small $10 to $20 that each person will pay a year, collects significant income for our infrastructure. Infrastructure work is good...construction jobs, engineering jobs, lower costs for car maintenance, lower costs to trucking maintenance, which in turn can make a location more attractive to businesses (not saying VT doesn't have other constraints challenging that thought).
DeleteWell written 4:42!
DeleteThe Vermont vehicle "fleet" (as our Sec. of Transportation calls it) uses 40 million gallons of gas a year, so even a penny a gallon generates $400,000.
DeleteAbout ten years ago, I was talking to a DOT supervisor who told me they had had to cut back to 40% on salting the roads. I was curious to find out how much "efficient government" was saving me by making every road in the state 40% less than maximally safe.
It was $195, or the price of a reasonably good footwear for a one-legged cowboy.
I sort of enjoyed the thought that by paying only $195 more, I would be making every state highway in Vermont as safe as possible for everybody who drove on them. Of course, when I realized that some of those people were "undeserving," I understood why it was better that we all be at risk, because maybe some of them would get killed. (h/t to the Anonymice who keep reminding us of them.)
But then I remembered Ed Flanagan, who had skidded off a road and overturned in a snowstorm and wasn't found for two days. He suffered severe neuro-motor damage as a result, which my $195 could have helped prevent. It also would have prevented the hundreds of thousands it cost to get him back into a real life.
God has a sense of humor.
The moment my life's decisions revolve around the price of fuel that's when I realize my life is pretty pathetic.
ReplyDeleteWhat time does the short bus leave Chuck?
ReplyDeleteanother reason i shop in new hampshire..cant afford to buy anything over here
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThat is the most incredible news I've heard since this Obama adoration Madness began six years ago. If you first voted for him to show you weren't a racist. You must have the second time to prove you are stupid.
ReplyDeleteAnother nail in the coffin of our local retailers. And the jack wads we send to Montpelier are proud of themselves. Thanks for NOTHING, Emmons & Martin.
ReplyDelete"I can take a bus to just about any town along the Connecticut for 6 bucks round-trip, and it saves me $1.50 in gas alone."
ReplyDeleteAnother oversimplification by 6th grade graduate Chuckie Bodine, whose time is worthless anyway.
If Moscow or Bejing were on those bus routes, Chuckie would hop aboard in a heartbeat!
Palin 1:7: - "For the Spirit that Anonymity has given us does not make us timid; instead its Spirit fills us with power, love and no need to use facts."
ReplyDeleteThis is why we can't afford to live in my beloved Vermont. Vermont is taxed to death. Shameful
ReplyDeleteWhat state do you live in?
Delete4:22-- You can see from the list below what your TOTAL tax load is as a Vermont resident. "Taxed to death" applied in Phillipi, where the opposing forces of Cassius and Brutus v. Antony and Octavius imposed an 85% confiscation rate on the peasants to wage the their final battle.
DeleteAverage income, minus $121 (bottom Vermont quintile)-- 8.7%
Average income, $17,267 (second lowest quintile)-- 9.1%
Average income, $34,150, (middle quintile)-- 10.4%
Average income, $58,697(fourth quintile)-- 8.9%
Average income, $101,231 (next 15%)-- 8.3%
Average income, $196,601 (next 4%)-- 8.1%
Average income, $782,386 (top 1%)-- 8.9%
The complaint is not about being taxed to death, but that those who can afford to pay the most are actually taxed the least because the rules are written to allow them to deduct more to compute adjusted gross income.
As long as you focus on the fallacy of being "taxed to death," you will continue to be a victim.
Anybody from the 1% care to respond to this in the usual way?
re: chuck gregory at 12:07pm
Delete8.9% of $782,386 = $69,632.35
10% of $34,150 is $3,551.60
Who's really paying more $$'s ?
JL Machinist: 91.1% of $782,386 is $712,753.64. 90% of $34,150 is $30,735. In terms of what's left to live on, who's paying more taxes?
DeleteThe smartest man in America, Warren Buffet (and in America, if you're rich, you must be smart) is the one who points out that his secretary pays more in taxes than he does, and it was Warren Buffet who said, "There is a class war in America, and we (meaning he and his ilk) are winning." Who are we to argue with Warren Buffet?
It's the tax rate, not the amount, that determines the fairness. If you want to believe otherwise, then you allow yourself to be victimized.
You didn't mention anything about fair so I stand by my post. We all into this world with the same constitutional rights, how we chose to personally execute those rights will result in and net result that many socialist and liberals will always deem as unfair. That is a lose-lose way of thinking.
DeleteAlso, your last statement "It's the tax rate, not the amount, that determines the fairness" seems very short sighted. In society how many of the 30K people will be plunking down the bucks on the charities? If your going to use the "fair" argument then you have to look at the bigger picture.
JL Machinist: We do NOT "all come into this world with the same constitutional rights."
DeleteThe "death tax" concept was developed by the Heritage Foundation for a Texas man who paid them $20,000 to come up with a good PR slogan for avoidance of estate taxes. It has just been evoked to raise the exemption on estates from $1 million to $5 million.
In 2004, the top 5% of the population paid for 85% of ALL federal-level campaigns, both winners and losers. In 2012, of the $4 billion spent on all the presidential candidates, three men-- Sheldon Adelson and Charles and David Koch-- by themselves pledged one-eighth of that-- half a billion dollars. And 90% of ALL campaign contributions are given in expectation of a favor rendered by the winner.
If you are a full-time Springfield resident, it is an absolute certainty you are not in their league. You will never have the Constitutional rights they have. You should see the movie "Hot Coffee" to see how the big boys will break you if you so much as have a serious dispute about your cell phone bill.
That shouldn't stop you from approving the government they buy for you.
As for charitable giving, this is what the New York Times reported:
ReplyDeleteFor decades, surveys have shown that upper-income Americans don’t give away as much of their money as they might and are particularly undistinguished as givers when compared with the poor, who are strikingly generous. A number of other studies have shown that lower-income Americans give proportionally more of their incomes to charity than do upper-income Americans."
Case in point-- see the movie "Wal-Mart." The Walton Foundation has an Employee Emergency Fund to which it contributes when an employee suffers a catastrophe. Employees over the years have raised among themselves $85,000 to help one another. During the same period of time, the Waltons-- who have more money that the bottom 40% of the population-- contributed $5,000.
So, it is advisable to disabuse yourself of the fantasy about the wealthy being more charitable. Social Security, Medicare and YOU are more charitable than most of them.
HAHAHA!!!! You're the only one I know who quotes the New York Times.
DeleteWell 12:58, you need more literate friends.
ReplyDeleteCharitable giving is best made to one's community. The flower beds in front of the library, the Miller Art Center (a historic site we should take care of), the telescopes of Stellaphane, and the possible new bike path. These are a few larger concerns to our community, than an increase on the gas tax.
ReplyDeletere Seth @6:50 .... agreed but try telling that to a liberal.
DeleteI am rather sick of this "liberal" vs "conservative" bipolar fight everything comes down to. It's idiocy. How about doing what is right for most American's for a change and stop digging into entrenched political party lines.
ReplyDeletere Anon 1:29pm.... tell that to Obama.
Deleteits about keeping us divided. if youre not with us then youre against us. i feel if you look at history youll see why. 25% of the country is dem. 25% is rep. 50% of us are outside. we need to make our voices heard and make them do the right thing for most americans. the problem is they do whats best for their campaign contributors.
Delete@ anon 1:37 why? He won the election.
DeleteDon't hate the player, hate the game son.