PICAYUNE —
Happy New Year, the price of gasoline is falling.
Why? Supply is up.
Why? Remarkably, with the election over, all our refineries are running near full capacity.
Gas prices are one of those things we like to whine about but have no control over. They jump up, down, and vary from pump to pump for no apparent reason. Many of us seek out the lowest pump price when it comes time to fill up. Others seek out pumps with no ethanol no matter the price.
About 10% of gas prices go for taxes. The feds and the state each get 18.4 cents per gallon (the .4 is an environmental protection fee).
Gas taxes are among the most pragmatic taxes levied. For the most part they go to support infrastructure essential to economic activity…highways and bridges. If you can’t move goods and people from place to place, you won’t have much of an economy.
Kind of like hospitals…if you don’t have the infrastructure to support a healthy workforce, you won’t get much work done.
In 1987, Mississippi business leaders got the Legislature to pass an ambitious four-lane highway program. To pay for it, the Legislature had to up gas taxes. I was amongst those who shot down Governor Bill Allain’s veto in order to authorize the program.
The average price of gas in 1987 was 89 cents a gallon. We upped the gas tax by 4 cents to 18 cents a gallon.
Today, gas costs four times as much, but the state tax is still 18 cents.
Meanwhile, the 1987 program cost twice its $1.6 billion projected cost and in 2002 the Legislature added miles, pushing projected costs over $5 billion.
Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall has, appropriately, called attention to the now 25-year-old tax rate, noting “it doesn’t have the buying power that it used to.” He also points out that many of our four lane highways are aging and need maintenance, but the funding didn’t include ongoing maintenance costs.
Hall stopped short of recommending a tax increase, but said it should be one option the Legislature should consider to keep our high quality highway system intact. He estimated each one-cent increase would generate $20 million.
In reality, though we would whine loudly, gas taxes could go up 10 cents a gallon and we wouldn’t notice it among all the ups, downs, and variances from pump to pump. However, that would make our prices too uncompetitive with neighboring states.
Here’s my thought for the New Year. The Legislature should consider increasing gas taxes to the national average, about a nickel a gallon. Give half to highways. Give the other half to hospitals by expanding Medicaid.
Good highways and good hospitals … two important Mississippi infrastructure needs.
(Crawford (crawfolk@gmail.com) is a syndicated columnist from Meridian.)
Columns
Happy New Year, and why not
- Columns
-
-
Hood’s ‘open carry’ ruling strikes important balances
Attorney General Jim Hood’s office issued an opinion this week that went a long way toward establishing some order and applying some common sense to what has become a contentious and confusing debate both for proponents and opponents of free exercise of the Second Amendment.
House Bill 2, which becomes law July 1, was authored and led to passage by state Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton. Gipson has told the press that he believed the legislation was necessary to clearly define what a concealed weapon is under the law and to distinguish between “concealed carry” and “open carry” rights. But many law enforcement officers charged with enforcing the state’s “concealed carry” law and other contradictory statutes, the bill created some confusion and Hood’s AG opinion brought some clarity to the ongoing debate. -
The Loss of Trust
Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust of the Obama administration that makes weighing the costs and benefits of the NSA program itself hard to assess. The belated recognition of this administration’s contempt for the truth, for the American people and for the Constitution of the United States, has been long overdue.
- Vocability Words can be both familiar and extremely confusing when taken from their usual context. Ask any wine enthusiast about legs, fat or bricks and they may assume you are speaking “Vinonese.” Ok — I made that word up; but the language of wine does indeed include legs, fat and brix which have entirely different meanings from what you might assume. Working with definitions from http://www.wineschool.com/vocabulary.html, try your basic knowledge of “Vinonese.”
- Vocability Words can set a tone for a situation, alter someone’s perception of an individual or group — in short, there is power in them. The Bible cautions, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue...” — Proverbs in 18:21, ASB. With that in mind, I will be focusing on words, some recently used and some obscure, to test the readers and build on what you already know. There will be theme weeks, for instance next week will focus on words involving wine — for no particular reason! So try your vocabulary skills with the following and see how you score. I’m always open to suggestions for material.
-
A hard rain is gonna fall...
By Kathryn Jean Lopez/Syndicated columnist
After disappearing during his term in office and bringing scandal to his family and state, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is going to Washington, having won election to Congress. And that’s far from the worst story reflecting the current character of our nation.
-
Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” -
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist
Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.
-
VA’s appalling failures not recent
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
In short, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery — Mississippi’s “Mr. Veteran” and author of the modern G.I. Bill that bears his name — must be spinning in his grave. There have been significant failures and poor service to veterans documented by state and local media since 2008. -
Dolley Madison politically savvy
By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts/Syndicated columnists
When Dolley Payne Madison became first lady in 1809, she instituted Wednesday evening gatherings at the White House where political rivals could meet and talk. They were called “squeezes” because so many people showed up and crowded the room. As Cokie wrote in her book “Ladies of Liberty": “All were welcome as long as they were appropriately dressed. And all went — skipping a Wednesday night might mean missing a vital piece of political information or being left out of a crucial deal.”
-
Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
Higher education in Mississippi has not been immune from national trends cited in a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report which concludes that over the last five years, the global economic downturn and a “no new taxes” political climate have increasingly shifted the burden of higher education finance to students and parents at a time when enrollment is increasing and the percentage of state support is decreasing. - More Columns Headlines
-
Hood’s ‘open carry’ ruling strikes important balances
Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions
Raw: Car Jumps Curb in NYC, Injures 8
Obama: 'Lives Have Been Saved' by NSA Programs
Obama: Friction in Afghan Talks No Surprise
Unusual Heat Wave Bakes Alaska
Raw: Massive Protests Fill Brazilian Streets
Raw: German President Welcomes President Obama
Fans Cheer Dramatic Heat Comeback
Raw: Arizona Wildfire Scorches 8 Square Miles
Hoffa Mystery Still Fascinates After 4 Decades
Raw: 1 Dead in Shooting at Mo. Apartment Complex
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
3 Charged in Ohio With Enslaving Mom, Daughter
Kid Couture: Spending Big Bucks on Babies
