Posted on 03/29/2006 9:04:21 AM PST by GOPRaleigh
Headlines March 29, 2006
Be a part of history on May 9th!
May 9th is the first day of the 2006 legislative session at the North Carolina General Assembly. All of your Legislators will be in Raleigh and so will we! That’s the day North Carolina Conservatives United will be having a STOP THE GAS TAX RALLY.
4:30 Craig Woolard Band starts playing
5:00 Barbeque dinners will be available
6:00 Program will begin with special guest speakers
The rally will take place downtown at the Bicentennial Plaza, which is the pedestrian mall linking Jones and Edenton Streets in downtown Raleigh.
I want YOU and other North Carolinians who care about government to join us. This is the day the politicians come back to session, and we want to show them just how strong we are.
To RSVP for this free event, go to www.gastaxrally.com and as always; you can go to www.stopthegastaxhike.com and sign the petition.
We are going into the summer driving season, and the politicians are taking away your vacation money through unnecessarily high gas taxes. Over 52,000 of us have signed the petition asking for relief at the pump. But the tax and spend politicians still aren't listening!
The politicians think we’ll just give up and go away. But they’re wrong…we’re coming to Raleigh.
Let's stand together for taxpayers and prove to the politicians that WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY.
I look forward to meeting you at the rally in Raleigh on May 9th.
29 Mar 2006 by Editor
I'll be out of town that week but good luck. I always hate driving into SC and VA and seeing gas prices that are twenty or thirty cents lower than what we pay in NC. The gas tax really is a squeeze on hard working North Carolinians.
Bump!
I drove to Ohio a few weeks ago.
I always make it a point to stop in Wytheville, Va. for gas as it is about .20/gal. cheaper than NC or WVa.
I've also told the Yankees :) to fill up in Va on their trips to Myrtle Beach, avoiding NC stations.
I expect I'm gonna catch some flack on this, but I think the Gas tax is EXACTLY the kind of tax I'm comfortable with. I pay for what I use.
I'd like to see more of the excise type of taxes and less of the income and particularly corporate income taxes.
I'm not against lower gas taxes, but I think we may be shooting ourselves in the foot in the long term by going after the more visible taxes before getting rid of the less visible ones.
If you win this one, I fear it will be a pyrrhic victory.
I think the end game is to rally popular support for less government spending. To accomplish that, taxation needs to be made MORE visible not LESS visible.
Gas tax is as good as any to pay for the upkeep of our roads. IMO, it is far better than toll roads and income taxes... especially since it collects from nearly everyone who uses our roads, even if they're just passing through.
Even drug dealers and income tax cheats pay they're fair share of gas tax.
I think the only scam for avoiding the gas tax is having "farm use" or some such fuel source and then using it for road use illegaly.
No flack, just a few notes:
The gas tax is built into the price of the product - the average consumer does not know what they pay in taxes at the pump.
In NC we pay the highest gas taxes in the Southeast (by FAR!), the 6th highest in the country and we drive on the 5th worst roads in the country. It doesn't add up.
Our NC gas taxes are automatically "adjusted" every 6 months. There will be a tremendous state gas tax increase in July.
North Carolinians already pay through the nose in state income taxes.
Everyone thinks NC is a red state. It is red nationally due to the number of military bases we have. National Security is a BIG issue here in national races.
In state politics we are blue - dark blue. Maybe with the scandals that have hit Meg Scott Phipps (former Ag Commissioner who is now in jail), Frank Ballance (former Rep. who is now in jail), and state House Speaker Jim Black (who is under state and federal investigation)the climate will change. Maybe.
In addition to GOPRaleigh's comments, the fund set up for the roads acts as a slush fund for all of the governor's pet projects. The reason it's so high (according to our local beaurocracy) is that increasing amounts of money are needed to maintain the state roads. However our road conditions decline, and the state gummit declares the gas tax has generated more money than was allocated in the budget and then gives more of our money away as "incentives" to promote the local economies. The way the legislature changed the wording of the "education" lottery provides the same conditions for that soon-to-be slush fund as well.
True!
I did not know that. Thank you.
"Maybe... the climate will change. Maybe."
I hope so. :o)
I wondered to what degree that was so. The roads around here are pretty good. But I likely live in one of the communities that gets more than it's fair share of "incentives" as you put it.
Also the highest in the Southeast!
We're # 1!
Yep - good ole Tax Hike Mike Easley, Jim Black - Jack, and Marc Basnight. The tax trio...
"Gas tax is as good as any to pay for the upkeep of our roads. IMO, it is far better than toll roads and income taxes... especially since it collects from nearly everyone who uses our roads, even if they're just passing through."
Excuse my honesty here, but you couldn't be further from the truth in this statement. Don't you see other postings on this page saying they fill up in either SC or VA to AVOID spending money in North Carolina? What makes you think someone 'passing through' even slows down in NC?
A toll road (I-95) would be money well spent as truckers and 'snow-birds'during their migrations would HAVE to spend some of their money here. They tear up our roads, especially the long-distance haulers, so they should help pay to have them repaired. You may want to 'rethink' your statement as our gas tax does NOT 'collect from everyone who passes through'.
You may want to 'reread' my statement:
...especially since it collects from nearly everyone who uses our roads, even if they're just passing through.
I very much agree with you in terms of the need to collect from those who use the roads. And I can't argue that toll roads are an effective way to do that. It's my personal preference I would rather pay for road upkeep via an excise tax on gas as opposed to essentially buying a ticket to use a public road.
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