Shameful push polling by the SN. Gas tax proposal.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I assume it's relevant for this community, since the SN's main office is in Davis Sq. Their recent poll asks:

"Interactive Poll

Are you in favor of Governor Patrick’s new gas tax proposal that would make Massachusetts the nation’s highest gasoline tax by raising it 19 cents, to 42.5 cents a gallon? "

http://www.thesomervillenews.com/

SN, tell us what you really think about the proposal.

This is just an excuse to ask what everybody thinks about the proposal. I'm neutral, since I don't drive.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Discussion of either local newspaper is relevant, but I consider their online polls to be utterly worthless. As far as I can see, they have no way to prevent people from voting multiple times. At least when we do an LJ poll here, you have to be an LJ member and you can only vote once.

As for the gas tax, I think it's fairer than jacking up the tunnel toll to $7, and if we want the Green Line here, it needs to be paid for somehow.

I wonder if ZIP car will increase their rates as a result.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how many people use ZIP cars, but I dislike their policy that the hourly rates include unlimited mileage. That means that those who are just using it to get groceries nearby are subsidizing those who travel far. I hope they introduce a two-level system, with two hourly rates. One for local driving and one for non-local uses.

[soong.livejournal.com]

I am in favor of the gas tax, since I don't drive self-righteously. ;-)

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I'd be in favor of it. I drive, though not every day.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I am not in favor of it. It isn't fair for everyone around here to pay when all the people who move north to NH get lower cost of living AND still wont be paying to use our roads.

[cos]

Funny (though meaningless) that their current poll results show 81% yes :)

[cos]

Yeah, but in exchange for that, they don't get to live here.

(And they don't benefit much from the public transit that the biggest chunk of this increase is going to support)

... or maybe it's karmic balance for all the Massachusetts people who have been living along the southern part of the state, or driving through CT and back on their way to New York, because CT and RI's gas taxes have been significantly higher than ours for a long time.

"I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

[cos]

"I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

That doesn't doesn't make sense. Being neutral is a fine position, but the effect of any tax is systemic; not driving does not mean it doesn't affect you.

1. The biggest chunk of the gas tax increase is for preventing the T from collapsing. Do you ride the T?

2. Raising revenue for transportation in this way means not having to pay for those things in other ways, so other taxes are less likely to rise, or will rise by less, as an effect of a higher gas tax. Do you pay any other taxes?

3. People who visit you, people who transport stuff to stores where you buy that stuff, etc., will pay the gas tax. Do you buy stuff at stores that was transported there on gasoline-powered vehicles?

etc.

Re: I wonder if ZIP car will increase their rates as a result.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

They also charge less for the cars that use less gas, however.

Besides, their hourly rate plan and daily rate are really not that well suited for long distance driving. Renting a car for more than 8 hours, as would usually be required to go any real distance, starts to get expensive enough so as not to be competitive with daily rental places that make you pay for gas.

The simplicity of their pricing model is definitely one of their biggest perks, and members drive so much less frequently than car owners that I figure almost anything that gets people into car-sharing programs does quite a bit to help the fossil fuel usage problem.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I think the population difference between New Hampshire and Massachusetts is proof enough that tax structure is not the main deciding factor in where people decide to live.

Besides, for most people the $500 more they'd be paying for the gas tax is nothing compared to the increase in property taxes and fuel cost of living in New Hampshire and commuting to Massachusetts.

Re: "I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

[m00n.livejournal.com]

As a non driver, I am TOTALLY IN FAVOR of ANYTHING that increases the cost of gas. Anything that gets people to drive less and live closer to work directly benefits me and almost everyone else in the state. If that tax increase can also be used to fund public transit, it's like a double awesome bonus.

[joyfulkel.livejournal.com]

I drive. I have to for work. I'm not thrilled about this, but I can suck it up to support the T. I hope they think about providing some sort of tax break or credit for folks who have to drive to work who make under a certain income to offset this though. I'm fortunate in that, while I don't make mad phat stacks of cash working in public mental health, I make enough where I can absorb this without too much stress. Other folks might not be so lucky. With the problems in the real estate and credit markets, people might not be able to move to be closer to their jobs if this becomes to burdensome. I also wonder if the government will talk to employers about increasing the mileage reimbursement for people who drive for work (if I remember correctly, there is a federal minimum, but that's it).

I may have cast the first vote...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Because when I did, yesterday, the results were 100% YES :)

Re: I wonder if ZIP car will increase their rates as a result.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

As I recall, you only get 180 miles per day you have a car- and if you drive more than that it's 45 cents per mile. It's not totally unlimited.

Re: "I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

OK, if I had said that I'm strongly in favor of a gas tax despite not being a driver, many people would have complained that I'm a selfish bastard! :)

Re: "I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I'm strongly in favor of the gas tax for environmental reasons. The cost of gasoline should include in it money that helps clean up the costs to the populace-at-large of driving, including health-care to kids with asthma, f'rinstance.

Still, that said, it's worth noting that unless the gas tax somehow does not apply to commercial drivers, a gas tax increases the cost of food, and impacts especially hard, local farmers.

Re: I wonder if ZIP car will increase their rates as a result.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Still, if I drive only 5 miles in 3 hours, it is not clear why I should pay the same as someone who drives 75 miles. I suppose if there are enough people driving only 5 miles, eventually they'll change it.

Re: "I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think there should be a strong incentive for trucks and heavy vehicles to become more efficient as well. Especially those. When you walk down Somerville Ave, or any other trafficky road, and a heavy truck drives by it's hard to breathe...

Re: I wonder if ZIP car will increase their rates as a result.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

The way I think of it is you're not paying for how far you drive the car; you're paying for having a car available. (I mean, that's the thing you get out of Zipcar that you don't have if you don't own a car, right? Car availability.) And what you do with the car during the time you have it doesn't have much impact on other Zipcar members, whereas the fact that you have it does, because that means it isn't available to anyone else.

[heliopsis.livejournal.com]

That's how I don't drive, too.

Re: "I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Cars are a HUGE environmental liability. My feeling is that by driving one whenever you don't really need to, you are being selfish. The more gas your car burns for every mile you drive, the more selfish you are.

Re: I wonder if ZIP car will increase their rates as a result.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Right. But it costs more to them if people drive 75 than 5 miles. They could stratify a bit, based on that.

[eeyorecol.livejournal.com]

though if they buy gas in Massachusetts, they would be paying for using the roads...

Re: "I'm neutral, since I don't drive."

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Could not agree more, actually. I would definitely like a world without car-emitting tons of dangerous fumes. I just worry about people who may be really close to not making it and who have to commute in from far away. Not sure they have a real choice (perhaps they did in the past and did not take advantage of it).

[masswich.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone is thrilled about this, but the state built a huge transportation infrastructure in the last 50 years (mostly 30-50 years ago) and it all needs to be repaired, as anything does after 50 years. We have enough gas tax to make some repairs but no where near as many as are needed. Add on top of that the need for new roads and transit lines, and we have to pay for them somehow.

There is no such thing as a "freeway." I personally would support more tolls on interstates in Mass. - esp. I-93 - but that does not seem to be feasible.

The fact that workers and employers have assumed the cost of transportation is covered under the current gas tax- and made important decisions about where to work and where to live based on them- is very unfortunate. But we cannot wish the current state of disrepair in the transportation system away by denying it. Eventually a bridge or two will collapse and people will die. Then the finger pointing would really start.

I'm personally supportive of a higher gas tax - as a daily driver who will pay a lot as a result of that decision. I just don't see that we have any choice...