I would question that 60% stat. I also read that Virginia’s gas tax, which was last increased in 1986 or 1987, lost half it’s value to inflation. So, you see, there is a conflict between the two stats.
If MD were to convince enough folks to move away, the traffic problems would be solved without further investment.
Don’t know how accurate it is, but a web-based CPI calculator shows that it takes $1.62 now to buy the same thing as $1.00 in 1992.
http://146.142.4.24/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1&year1=1992&year2=2012
around here, every penny increase in price at the pump is a defacto tax increase IIRC...
if it were required, or better yet *allowed* [as i bet the fuel companies cant post the stats] to be posted on the pump how much tax was already layered on, pitchforks and torches would prolly already have happened...