Proposed gas tax hike riles gas station owners

The Grand Rapids Press ^ | December 17, 2008 | Ken Kolker

[george76]

A proposed gasoline tax hike to fix the state's crumbling roads and bridges is pitting road builders against gasoline station owners, who say it would give Michigan the highest tax in the nation.

With the proposed hike being considered by the lame duck state Legislature, Michigan would jump ahead of California, the nation's current No. 1...

"It's the last thing this ailing economy needs right now," ... "Cheap fuel prices are fueling the (economic) activity we have now. Taxing gasoline to fix roads is an old way of doing it."

A recent poll of truckers ranked Michigan interstates as the ninth roughest in the country. The Reason Foundation's 2007 annual report on state highways ranked Michigan's rural interstates as the nation's second-worst, behind New Hampshire.

Michigan now has the nation's fifth-highest gasoline tax, including state and federal taxes, at 59.4 cents a gallon. California's is 67.1 cents.

"I put it down to three issues: It's too quick, it's too complicated and it's too much,"

[Glacier Honey]

ping

[tubebender]

Does that 67.1 Cal gas tax include the per dollar sales tax...

[george76]

63.9 Gasoline

72.0 Diesel

6% Sales Tax. 1.25% county tax. 1.2 cpg state UST fee. plus local sales tax

http://www.californiagasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

[lfrancis]

Contracts are open to all contractors union and non-union. States are required to pay Davis-Bacon wage rates for Federal Aid projects and in Michigan, state prevailing wages on all state funded projects.

[grellis]

If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Yes, the problem was because the State legislature spent the Federal money and other road maintenance funds for their Socialist handout programs, bike paths, parks, cool liberal arts centers (All decked out with high dollar marble and gold trimmed murals, etc.) And I'm sure this is how ACORN became so well funded and “organized”.

Now all of a sudden, they have a “crisis” that requires them to raise taxes. Who knew?

[Vigilanteman]

Let me guess: Michigan is like PennDOT on steroids?

The standing joke around here is that all PennDOT has to do to cut costs is have four people working and eight standing around instead of the current ratio of ten lookers/sign holders/supervisors to two workers.

[Vigilanteman]

Let me explain. The areas which Fast Eddie and his DemoCRAP machine controls gets everything and those which he doesn't control gets nothing but tax increases, potholes and promises.

When you consistently earn the worst roads in the nation, it isn't hard to suddenly get the most improved in an election year.

[TCats]

That is part of the problem but I suspect it also involves sweetheart contracts and substandard materials and methods.

I mean I am completely amazed at how Michigan appears to spend much more on their roads yet cannot come up with roads that reasonably withstand winter. Colorado, Wyoming, etc. have much better roads at what I think is a much lower cost/mile to build and maintain.