Fight the Gas Tax Hike

As we mentioned earlier this week, Butch Brown, Director of the Mississippi Department of Tourism Transportation, wants to hike gas taxes by 27%. People are tired of higher taxes and taxing gas is not a wise move in this economy.

Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant went on the record opposing the gas tax hike.

When Garret McDaniel heard the state gas tax could go up, his first reaction was, "Another tax?"

"We're already getting taxed on everything else," McDaniel continued. "Everything's going up. I can barely afford to get enough gas to afford to drive."

But state leaders, like Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant, don't want to see the tax raised at all.

In a statement, Bryant said, "In these tough economic times, I am opposed to any further tax burden on the taxpayer."

The Clarion Ledger has also chimed in.

Now is not the time for a tax increase that would raise the price of gasoline.

Brown's call for higher gasoline taxes is highly unpopular and politically impossible in the current economic climate and rightly so. Higher gas prices, even a nickel higher, will have a negative impact on the economy. But it does make sense in terms of public policy.

In the short run, the benefit of a fuel excise tax hike isn't worth the economic pain.

But MDOT's fuel excise tax hike policy argument is forced to operate in the shadow of the two-on-one political standoff between the state's transportation commissioners. Mississippi needs attention to transportation issues that transcend the gas tax. The Legislature should make reforming that state function more of a priority.

Amen.