New gas tax levels to be announced Dec. 1

November 20, 2008 9:00 am

by Pete Randall · 1 comment

Oh, goodie. Here’s a thought…how about “zero”?

Georgia drivers should find out in two weeks whether falling gas prices will shave some money off the sales tax on motor fuels.

One of the state’s two taxes on gas, the sales tax is set every six months. Right now, the tax is at 11 cents a gallon, where it was set on Jan. 1. Gov. Sonny Perdue froze an increase of 2.9 cents per gallon that was set to kick in July 1.

{ 1 comment }

Icarus November 20, 2008 at 10:44 am

How about zero?

I’m for raising it.

Two reasons:

1) Energy independence. Granted, this would be more effective if done at the national level, and if done as an imported oil tax (on oil and refined products from non-Nafta countries). If done that way, it would favor domestic consumption over foreign, while decreasing overall consumption as well.

2) User Fees. The gas tax is the closest thing we have to a user fee for the system of roads and bridges we drive on for “free”. Though the sales tax varies, the motor fuel tax hasn’t been raised in “forever”, but the cost of new roads/bridges has increased dramatically over the past decade, as has the cost of maintaining exisiting roads. We need literally hundreds of billions of dollars to upgrade our transportation system in this state. This is the place to start rasing this money. (as well as eliminating the part that is paid into the state general fund.)

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