Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Gas Tax Increase Proposed With Revenue Going To Surprising Cause

Well this is interesting. Transportation Issues Daily says Mike Baumgartner, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from right here in Washington, wants to raise the gas tax. No big deal right? Every politician seems to have been saying that for a while now. What is different about his proposal though is where the money raised would go. It would make sense to go back toward transportation projects right, since money is so tight in that area and infrastructure is crumbling? Well that's not what Baumgartner is suggesting.

He says revenue raised from his proposed one cent tax increase should be dedicated to a special fund for veterans care. He told the Seattle Times this would remind every American that a war is still going on every time they fill up and that nearly 70,000 troops are in harms way.

Thoughts on that?

4 comments:

Ron Edgar said...

Why not just end the tax breaks for oil companies or better yet bring the troops home.

SRTC Staff said...

You should run for office Ron ;) I just find it an odd combination- gas tax and veterans? I think we all agree veterans deserve help and services but seems like a gas tax would make more sense spent in the transportation arena.

Ron Edgar said...

Being retired does seem to make me feel freer to make some political type comment. But I agree fuel taxes should be used for transportation related projects. Just for discussion I would suggest that because fuel use and roadway use are related that the gas tax be used only for maintenance and that other funding be used for construction.

SRTC Staff said...

Not a bad idea Ron. Seems like there should be somewhere else funding for veterans could come from.


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SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.