people drive smaller cars, get better mileage use less gas, so RAISE TAXES!!!
Posted on 05/24/2018 5:56:59 PM PDT by Coleus
It’s not the news New Jersey drivers wanted to hear.
This week we got word that gas tax collections have fallen behind expectations in the Garden State, which means the gas tax could be increased by 3 or 4 cents a gallon this fall.
When lawmakers approved a plan to hike the gas tax almost 23 cents a gallon back in 2016 in order to fund the Transportation Trust Fund, the law was written in such a way to guarantee that a predictable level of revenue would be generated every year.
If gasoline sales dip, according to the law, the gas tax can be raised in order to make up the difference and ensure an additional $1.16 billion would be collected for the fund that's used to pay for roadwork.
An official with the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services testified during a special hearing on Monday that sales have dipped. State Treasurer Elizabeth Muoio confirmed that officials will review tax collection numbers later this summer to make a determination about how much of a gas tax increase (if any) is needed.
When Gov. Phil Murphy was asked about this looming tax increase, he said: “We take every one of those dollars seriously, every penny at the gas pump. The fact of the matter is the Transportation Trust Fund had been allowed to go virtually bankrupt.”
Murphy said raising the gas tax a couple of years ago took a lot of courage.
“You have to stand up at some point; you have to do things that aren’t necessarily going to win you a lot of hosannas.”
He suggested raising the gas tax may not be popular, but it could be necessary.
“If you’re the fourth smallest state in the nation and the densest state in the nation, which we are, and you sit beside the largest market in the world in the north, and one of the largest in the country in the south, the one thing you’ve got to get right is infrastructure,” he said.
“That gas tax feeds the Transportation Trust Fund and allows us to dig out of the mess that we’ve been in and reclaim that space that we used to dominate, which is a state that really works and gets people around.”
Treasury officials will review gasoline sales in August, and if they adjust the gas tax, it will take effect Oct. 1.
I think I'm going to go into the street-paving business. It will make me a millionaire. But first I will have to change to a D.
Diminishing returns still are functioning economics after 8 years of Hussein?
Who’da guessed?
Does Krugman know?
Once again, the democrats prove they don’t understand simple economics (supply/demand).
The more you tax, the less people will buy and tax revenue goes down.
You betcha: increasing prices lead to declining demand, so the thing to do is make the product more expensive. Classic liberal economic thoufht
Someone has to pay those state pensions. Every meter-maid & mother’s helper jobs at town hall now end their careers with millions of dollars in cash & medical benefits.
They don’t care. When they don’t collect “enough” it’s your fault. This attitude is exactly what brought Republicans to power.
Ya, well at least you got it right that you're dense.
Politicians NEVER have enough of other people’s money to spend.
So where did the money go that was in the “trust” fund?
In addition to this automatic increase, the state of New Jersey also taxes an extra 7% on the purchase of any hydrocarbons used in manufacturing. So I have a small resin business and we get this payable every quarter. Makes us non-competitive with other states producers.
Result we will shut the plant down and move to West Virginia. Found also that to run the steam boiler we have to contend with 82 pages of regulations in New Jersey. In West Virginia the rules are on one page.
Move we must. Who will be left to pay for the “grifters”, Atlas shrugged?
A little more weight on the scale to help people decide the leave the Garden State.
They really don’t. Ask one if labor is a commodity, and if the price of a commodity goes up, do you buy more or less of it. I’ll bet you can’t find one that knows the answer.
To the Dems......every tax needs to be higher, they put their money in ‘Foundations’ and ‘non-profits’, taxes......no problem!
Behold amoral, corrupt, power-hungry Liberals at their best which is ruining everything they touch while putting taxpayers money into their own self-serving back pockets.
At some point, the people will wake up and realize they were stolen blind.
Another Democrat courageously raising taxes.
That’s what the New Jersey voters wanted, so I hope they get it good and hard.
Christie fatigue coupled with a never ending MSM drumbeat
over the fake “Bridgegate” scandal fooled a majority of dopes
in this state to elect this insufferable grade A fancy ninny -
a Wall St exec with a extremely poor grasp on economics who almost makes the execrable lib governors nearby look good. NJ used to be the state with the cheap gas you’d always fill up in now you just keep driving through
Welcome to WV, the business climate is improving here.
Enjoy the ramps and peperoni rolls, oh and the shine too.
In Calif the gas tax is or may be going up .63 cents a gallon if the democrats have their way.
Same old song for over 100 years...
people drive smaller cars, get better mileage use less gas, so RAISE TAXES!!!
But wait a minute. Lower gas tax revenues mean that people are driving less and/or using more fuel efficient vehicles. Isn’t that what the statists want?
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