LETTER: ‘Gutless’ GOP legislators afraid of gas tax, want meters in cars

To Ozaukee Press:

The Wisconsin Republican Legislature’s proposal to use a mileage-based fee to raise revenue for transportation is a needless complication.

The only motivation for this is to avoid voting for an increase in the gas tax. To spend $2.5 million on a study to establish the fee program is ridiculous. Oregon has a fee system. Wisconsin taxpayers don’t need to pay some consulting firm to rediscover and reinvent a system for Wisconsin.

We already have a mileage-based revenue system. It’s the tax on gasoline and diesel fuel. The more miles you drive, the more fuel you use. The fact that improvements in reducing vehicle gas consumption will mean less fuel sales is not a justification to use a fee system. Just have the political courage and fiscal responsibility to raise the tax.

Tax is not a dirty word. It’s the primary way that government pays its expenses. It’s like a wage or a salary. Government earns it by delivering services, by maintaining roads and bridges, etc.

Putting meters in cars is a needless expense to drivers so that gutless legislators can avoid voting for gas tax. Self-reporting mileage is ridiculous and unreliable. The gauge on the gas pump is a meter that we don’t need to install in our cars. Toll booths? We don’t need them. We have gas pumps to collect the tax.

It’s time for the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature to grow up and do their job.
 

LeRoy Bessler
Mequon