Little Martin gasoline tax fuels anger
This week, Little Martin's county commission voted 4-1 to extend a regressive 12-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax until 2036, the maximum fuel tax counties may charge in Florida. This cute little ploy was originally soft-pedaled to residents as a "temporary" tax increase...
I don't really recall what the necessity was that prompted the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to offer a ballot referendum to raise the fuel tax to its maximum; I don't recall because I ALWAYS vote no when asked if I want my taxes raised. What a ridiculous thing on which to vote - Americans are overtaxed as it is and anyone who voluntarily raises their taxes is an idiot. It's the spending, stupid.
Why?
Perhaps the "temporary" tax increase was to augment funding for the county agency with the strongest and most politically active union. Perhaps it was to pay for widening Little Martin's main thoroughfares to 50 lanes because the BOCC never met a sprawling bedroom community or 3,000-unit walled development it didn't like. Perhaps it was to pay for improvements to Becker Road so that we can squeeze an additional 30,000 vehicles-per-day of St. Lucie County traffic onto Little Martin byways. I just don't remember and I really don't care.
What I do care about is the fact that the BOCC members have acted in a thoughtless manner at the expense of the very residents they shepherd. It is no secret that fuel prices are out of control thanks to commodities traders cashing in on daily crises the Drive-By Media is so good at ramping up, as well as an insane global demand for crude oil, particularly demand emanating from Communist China and India. One would have to plan long and hard indeed to select a worse time to pull such a wrong-headed stunt.
But perhaps the absolutely worst, most disingenuous aspect of the BOCC's scheme is the fact that Little Martin's lower-income residents will continue to be hit in the pocketbook hardest of all. Why, you ask? Because any flat tax such as the fuel tax that was just extended 30 years is a regressive tax.
Raise the levy, hurt the poor
A regressive tax is a levy which takes a larger percentage of income from people whose income is low (a fixed tax like the 12-cent fuel tax). Every person, regardless of income level, must pay the same amount of money. Some of you who are earning decent incomes might not care about or never think about your low-income neighbors, but such fuzzy-headed thinking is just plain un-American. As a Reagan conservative any tax is anathema to me, but one that punishes folks who are hard-pressed to pay is loathsome.
And before you get into a frenzy about supply-side economics and regressive taxation, just remember that its advocacy was considered ONLY as a means to temper stagflation. No, if you overspend and then attempt to compensate by raising taxes, they should be progressive such as property taxes which do not tend to take up a higher percentage of the budget of a person or family with a lower income.
Uh-oh ... did I mention property taxes? One can't get re-elected if one champions property tax increases. Better to defray excessive spending by saddling the unwashed rabble, most of whom don't vote anyway, eh?
Here's another pesky little fact that ties in nicely with this 30-year pinch on county residents' egg money: Little Martin has no infrastructure worthy of the name "public transit" so for 30 more years, the county can garner a larger percentage of income from low-income residents who have few or no other transportation alternatives.
I don't even want to get started about the county's hard-working family businesses, small-time operators like tree trimmer Jerome in East Stuart who told me his greatest expenses after paying his sons each week were fuel costs, dump fees, and equipment maintenance. The continuation of the tax ad infinitum will certainly affect his profit margin, which is already thinner than a Roosevelt dime. Expend a little energy and think about it; you'll understand why eventually.
Fight taxes with ballots
And for those of you out there who think that the extension doesn't matter because the 12-cent tax has been in place for a while now, think again. Aren't you the same people I see pulling into service stations every day, glancing at the fuel price, then speeding off again to find a better value elsewhere? Obviously pennies per gallon matter to you.
After commodities traders inflate the price of crude which then drives up refining costs, the next-largest percentage of every fuel dollar you pay is siphoned off in taxes at the federal, state, and local levels. Yet when gasoline first hit three dollars per gallon, you didn't see bureaucrats or politicians falling over each other to reduce any of the fuel taxes, did you? No, once a tax is in place it's there to stay unless the political winds shift.
Extending Little Martin's maximum fuel tax was the worst possible thing to do, done at the worst possible time, impacting our low-income people in the worst possible way.
Smarten up before you start pulling levers in the next election.