The Journal-Register
May 29, 2008 05:36 pm
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The gas holiday proposed by state Sen. George Maziarz and the Republican Senate is nothing more than meaningless, irresponsible lip service. By cutting the gas tax now, even for a short time, many highway reconstruction projects that are needed would not be funded.
These highway projects are needed now, just as much as they were back in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan created a 5-cent per gallon gas tax to be used for highway construction. Later, the US Congress changed the highway funding to come from the gas tax, and NOT the General Fund (our income tax).
So, if you drive bigger cars, or longer distances, you responsibly pay more gas tax to maintain and build new highways.
But not all of the gas tax pays for highways. One 5-cent gas tax in 1991 was created by Republican President George Bush to fund federal deficit reduction! Remember when he broke the promise he made in 1988 that there would be no new taxes??!!
If George Maziarz cared about the people of New York state, he would do more research to determine which things we can do without and cut them from the gas tax. I fail to see that happening.
Hope we can get a more responsible state senator to replace him this fall.
James A. Sacco Jr.
Pendleton
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