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Don’t raise the gas tax

Unquestionably, Pennsylvania’s bridges, roads and other infrastructure are badly in need of improvements, but it should NOT be funded by increasing the gas tax. Why not?

The gas tax is a regressive tax that would place the greatest burden for paying for renovating the state’s infrastructure on the shoulders of working-class Americans who were NOT responsible for the deterioration of the bridges and roads and who can afford it the least.

It’s no secret that the destruction of the State’s infrastructure was caused by the increased weight limit and size of the corporate trucks.

It’s also no secret that the business community is pushing for new roads that will save time and increase their profits.

It’s also no secret that the corporations don’t want to pay for improved or new infrastructure and will gladly support increasing a tax that can be written off as an expense that won’t affect their bottom line.

So what’s a better solution for funding infrastructure improvements? Unfortunately, Pennsylvania doesn’t have a progressive income tax so the alternative is to raise the state’s personal flat-rate income tax and the tax on corporate profits.

Unfortunately that won’t affect out-of-state users, but they wouldn’t buy our higher priced gas either. So fix Pennsylvania’s infrastructure, but don’t raise the gas tax.

David L. Faust

Selinsgrove

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