Friday, November 11, 2011
Taxes Beebe won't commit on highway tax increase
Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 6:38 AM
“I think they are so totally different issues,” Beebe said Wednesday. “I think there will be a lot more reluctance on the people’s part to increase the sales tax for roads.“The governor made no commitment to back the 2012 highway program as he did with publicly supporting and appearing in television ads for the interstate bond program.
“I have no preconceived notions right now on what I’m going to do in that regard, we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said. “It’s way to early to tell.”
Beebe's reluctance is even more interesting in context of an earlier remark that he might vote for the gas severance tax initiative being pushed by Sheffield Nelson and the Arkansas Municipal League. It's a tax increase, but it would mostly be paid by gas users in other states and would pay for highways as well as provide some money for shoring up our underfinanced gas regulatory mechanisms. It is a totally different issue, in other words. Beats a half-cent on groceries, clothes, utilities to push those costs into other states while getting the money necessary to pay for damage caused by the drilling industry.
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Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
The four-lanes to Lake Village are great as will be those to Jonesboro and Paragould one o’ these days, but our roads remain terribly inferior to those in Mississippi and other surrounding states. Wish Beebe would get off his butt and show some leadership on this one.
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Calling it a "gas severance tax increase" is fine, but it's actually a partial recovery of the people's money from the corporations who socialized their costs onto us while privatizing profits. "Partially halting freeloading" is more apt.
I'd vote for a tax increase if it would get the beltway around Little Rock finished.
Same here radical but since you-ins have gobbled up the lion's share of highway money for the past 50 yrs it's about time we get a decent W to E highway for the northern part of the state, the part that's growing and sending more money to L.R. than any other part of the state.
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