Letter: Conservatives would have federal gas tax become state tax, he says

TO THE EDITOR: Since 1993, Washington, D.C., has collected 18.4 cents on every gallon of gasoline sold.

This generates more than $32 billion per year that Washington doles back to the states often for “behavior modifying projects” like light rail or bike paths. In the process, the feds are nothing more than middlemen who take a cut and place restrictions on the money they return.

The $32 billion the feds take from us becomes pork dollars, the kind of money that makes the dreaded “ear mark” possible.

Currently, those crazy conservatives in Washington, D.C., are pushing for change. They would have the federal gas tax become a state tax, collected and spent by the states. This would keep Wisconsin money in Wisconsin and allow Wisconsin to decide how to spend it.

Do you remember when Gov. Walker was offered stimulus money for high speed rail between Milwaukee and Madison? He did us a favor when he refused it. We didn’t have to generate matching funds nor are we saddled with the ongoing operating expenses for a project that would benefit so few at such a high cost to the rest. On the downside, that money was still spent, elsewhere.

In the process of the feds tax collection, there is no guarantee that money collected in a state is returned to that state. Taxes collected in Wisconsin can very easily fund Amtrak on the East Coast or Light Rail between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

I am a defender of fewer and lower taxes, of less government and fewer restrictions, making our problems local makes them that much more manageable. Those Tea Partiers, what’s next?

Reps. Maxine Waters (D) California, Andre’ Carson (D) Florida and Fredericka Wilson (D) Florida and NAACP would have you believe the Tea Party is the enemy. Not in my book.

Tags: opinion, letters, politics