WASHINGTON (AP) -- The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.
Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded - with a prod from the construction industry - that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.
Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.
Among other revenue-raising possibilities, the commission recommended gradually increasing the current federal fuel taxes to 40 cents a gallon.
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association is calling for a 10-cent-a-gallon raise and indexing the tax to inflation.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAS_TAX_HIGHWAYS?SITE=PAPOE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I just got an almost 30% Homestead property Tax Cut on my property tax.
guess I'll loose that to Gas taxes, and the backlash when everything else goes up
Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded - with a prod from the construction industry - that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.
Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.
Among other revenue-raising possibilities, the commission recommended gradually increasing the current federal fuel taxes to 40 cents a gallon.
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association is calling for a 10-cent-a-gallon raise and indexing the tax to inflation.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAS_TAX_HIGHWAYS?SITE=PAPOE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I just got an almost 30% Homestead property Tax Cut on my property tax.
guess I'll loose that to Gas taxes, and the backlash when everything else goes up
