Turning 16 years old is one of the most-beloved milestones
of an American teenager. Being 16 meant getting your driver's license, which
meant eventually getting a car, which meant freedom.
Freedom is something we all want, isn't it? If you asked 100
random Minnesotans if they wanted more or less freedom, I think you would be
hard-pressed to find one that said they wanted less.
Well what if I told you that Governor Dayton's proposed gas tax meant that you and your descendants (children, grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, etc.) would likely not own a mode of transportation at
all?
In 2015, Governor Dayton announced that he wanted to raise
the gas tax by at least 16¢ a gallon (the gas tax gets higher per gallon as
wholesale gas prices get higher. At $4 a gallon, the gas tax would be 22¢ per
gallon.) The federal gas tax is already 18.4¢ per gallon. Add this with Minnesota's 28.5¢ per gallon gas tax, and you're looking at 47¢ per gallon
before the gas tax hike. If the gas tax passes, this means that you will be
paying at least 63¢ per gallon just in taxes.
To put this into perspective, if you were to fill up your 26
gallon tank in your 2010 Chevy Silverado at the cheapest place to get gas in MNtoday ($1.77/gal at Costco) with the current gas tax, you would pay $46.02. If
Governor Dayton's gas tax passes, you would actually end up paying $50.18.
Now you may be thinking, "Well, Nick, $4 each time I
fill up my gas tank is not that big of a deal, because Minnesota needs better
roads, anyway!" Well....you'd be wrong on two accounts.
First off, if you're like 41% of Americans, you're filling
up your gas tank once a week. $4 x 52 weeks equals an extra $204 you weren't
paying before. If you're like 19% of Americans and filling up your gas tank
twice a week, you're paying an extra $408 a year. Now, many people may be able
to cut down on expenses like that Starbucks you love, or not take your kid on
that trip to the water park. But why should you have to? This is America,
shouldn't you be able to spend your own money how YOU want? If you're one of11.4% of Minnesotans that is considered below the poverty line, you're not
going to be able to afford the couple extra hundred dollars, and you're going
to be stuck without a way to get to work, a way to be able to bring your kids
to school, and a way to enjoy the basic freedom that every American has the
right to - the freedom to move about freely. This means that many racial
minorities (who are 30% more likely to be below the poverty line than whiteMinnesotans) will be even more marginalized and discriminated against than they
were before.
Secondly, Governor Dayton's gas tax (gasp here) won't go
towards fixing Minnesota's roads. In 2015, Minnesota had a $1.87 billion surplus.
If you were Governor of Minnesota, what would you do with an extra $1.87
billion? You'd probably want to fix the roads, and then use the rest to give
you and all your neighbors a hefty tax break! If we used half of the surplus to
fix Minnesota roads and bridges, and then divided the rest of it up among all
of Minnesota's residents, each person would get $171.33. Think of all the
things you could do with that money!
Well, too bad you're not the governor.
Governor Mark Dayton intends to do some fixing of roads and
bridges, sure, but much of the new taxes (Oh yes, there is more than just the
gas tax.) will go towards the Southwest light-rail line going from Eden Prairieto Minneapolis. In 2013, it was estimated that Eden Prairie had 62,603 people living within its borders. So in summary, Governor Dayton wants to spend $2 billion on a light rail to a city that only has a little more than 60,000
people. There goes your tax return!
But there is a hidden motive behind the gas tax, one that
progressives have been using for decades. It has been found in study after
study that if a country or state increases the gas tax, people won't buy a car.
And if people don't buy cars, there's less pollution, and less incentive to fix
the roads for the future. In a study done by Heritage.org, severalmacroeconomists found that for every one percentage increase in the gas tax,there would be 0.86% less demand for modes of transportation. This means that
using the numbers above, there's 470,850 people who will give up using their
personal mode of transportation and will no longer have any way to get around
their community, state, and nation. That is 70,000 more people than the entire
population of Minneapolis.
Are we honestly going to be an accomplice in taking cars
from 470,000 people who won't be able to afford the Governor's gas tax? Or are
we going to speak up and help protect Minnesotan's right to use their money and
vehicles how they want to?
To oppose the gas tax, find your state senator here, call
them, and tell them you oppose the gas tax for a better Minnesota, the way it
should be.
To get more involved with the fight against the gas tax,
shoot me an email at: nsolheim@afphq.org
