“I just got back from a week in Biloxi MS doing hurricane repairs, so am out of the loop this morning on anything around here. That trip puts this job in a whole different perspective. The devastation and the survival stories were overwhelming. It'll be years before those folks get back to any semblance of a normal life. We helped a young Cuban family (the father used to be a chemistry teacher) insulate and drywall their home and overcame the language barrier with gestures and body language.”
“Thanks, guys. This is gonna sound real corny, but doing it was the only reward we needed. You should have seen the faces of the family when we left them. Their casa is our casa. There's thousands of people doing similar stuff down there, not through the government but through private groups.
“If you ever get the chance to do something like this, I'd highly recommend it.”
Time really blew it.
I had my doubts about "no index = no tax growth." I know for a fact that since 1985: I am driving more; I have more drivers in my household; I am driving less efficient vehicles (I sure miss that Renault Encore); and I’m driving faster, hence burning even more fuel. I am fairly certain that the same holds true for the majority of Americans, and made the following statement before any research:Indexing inflation-proofs Wisconsin's gas tax
- The largest source of revenue for the Transportation Fund is the state gas tax.
- Unlike sales tax and income tax revenues, which both go into the General Fund, there is no natural growth in state gas tax revenue.
o The flat “per gallon” rate does not change, even as the price of gasoline rises.- To help transportation revenue grow with the economy, the Legislature created an annual indexing adjustment beginning in 1985.
- Indexing originally called for the state gas tax to be adjusted annually on April 1 based on inflation and overall fuel consumption.
o In 1997, the Legislature removed the consumption factor.- Indexing is now based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.
o Sometimes indexing can result in an adjustment downward, which leads to a reduction in the state gas tax. This occurred in 1989 and 1994.
o While indexing usually increases the gas tax rate slightly, the difference is minor when compared to frequent price jumps at the gas pump.
I think the automatic rate increase is only a small piece of the equation, because more drivers are driving more miles in less efficient vehicles. I am confident that the amount of taxes collected has increased dramatically more than the gas tax indexing would indicate. I also suspect that these numbers are kept hidden to suppress an even larger taxpayer revolt.
Here's a crazy proposal, index gas taxes collected to inflation. If state collections increase faster than inflation, reduce the gas tax for the following year. Watch the roadbuilders and their legislative whores gag on that one.After reviewing the data, that proposal is overly conservative. I've revised it to something more reasonable:
