You're not paying enough to operate your car

As if the prospect of gas at $4 a gallon isn't enough, get ready Portland -- the region's leaders think you need to pay more.

Yesterday's Oregonian reported that statewide gasoline use decreased by more than 4 percent in January compared with the previous January. That's good, right? It means less fossil fuel consumption and lower carbon emissions.

But it also means that gas tax revenue has decreased to the lowest level in more than two years. So what does that mean? It means that when the Oregon legislature convenes in 2009, you should be ready to hear how the state's transportation grid is in shambles and the state doesn't receive sufficient taxes through gas purchases to finance repairs. You should be ready to hear Gov. Ted Kulongoski, in his last biennial legislature, call for a new tax on miles driven -- a new tax based on mandatory installation of GPS devices in our cars to track mileage. And you should be ready to hear the sound of crickets from people who would otherwise complain about Republican efforts to invade their privacy.

Oh, and if that wasn't enough, we have today's Oregonian editorial. You have to read to the last two paragraphs to see that our region's leaders are planning an additional vehicle registration fee to fund transportation maintenance ($54 per vehicle, but it doesn't say if that's a biennial fee to match the DEQ fee). And it ends by noting that legislators "haven't managed to raise the gas tax since the 1991 session. That's something of which every single one of them should feel ashamed."

Ignoring the amount of tax money spent on mass transit options that serve a disproportionately small percentage of the public, it may be that the gas tax should have been raised over the last 17 years. However, I doubt anyone is currently "ashamed" by that when we're already paying through the nose at the pump. No one, that is, except the Oregonian and the regional leaders who never overlook a chance to make you pay more to the government, even when the problem is exacerbated by inaction and ineptitude on the part of the government in question.

Quote of the Day: on Oregon tax reform

Today's quote of the day comes from Rob Kremer, who noted a new task force to study ideas for restructuring state revenue sources. The task force has two spots for "taxpayer association representatives," and one of the spots went to Chuck Sheketov of the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP). This prompted Rob to proclaim:

Calling the OCPP a taxpayer association representative is roughly the equivalent of calling Planned Parenthood an "Embryo Advocacy Organization."

Quote of the Day: Raising Oregon Taxes

For the last several days, the Oregonian has been singing the praises of Oregon Republicans for finding a compromise that eliminates the corporate kicker and increases corporate taxes in order to create a rainy-day fund.

In Sunday's print edition, resident conservative David Reinhard framed it as a Republican victory (I can't find it on the paper's website), under the headline, "Why Scott and his House GOP are smiling."

But.

In this morning's Oregonian, we learn that all is not hunky-dory in either the Oregon business community or the Republican caucus. Once the details were examined, it turned out that the tax structure could mean identical businesses, one of which earns a dollar more in income than the other, could be paying a difference of tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. And suddenly, the supposed groundswell of support from the Oregon business community is unraveling, as small business owners -- you know, the ones who provide the vast majority of jobs in Oregon? -- protest a huge government-sponsored grab at their livelihood.

But never mind that. They're just whiners. A spokesman for House Minority Leader Wayne Scott said "there are no second thoughts" in the Republican caucus. The story by Betsy Hammond added:

Democrats acknowledged imperfections in the plan but said lawmakers in both parties need to honor the deal brokered by their leaders. Getting a rainy day fund for Oregon and raising its archaic $10 minimum corporate tax are too important, they said.

In other words: we know it stinks, but we do what our leadership tells us to do. The possibility of putting you small business owners out of business or creating layoffs is so far down on the list of concerns that it doesn't register. We want the good press from the Oregonian telling us how great we are.

In fairness, the story does say that House Majority Leader Dave Hunt and others "are willing to modify the new corporate minimum tax rates after the package clears both the House and Senate." Call me a skeptic, but I'll believe it when I see it. Once the package is approved by both chambers, there is little reason to believe the Democrat-controlled legislature won't simply send it on to the governor.

As Dare!PDX noted at Northwest Republican this morning, now that Republicans are on board, suddenly the press is calling it a tax increase, something it was loath to do when Democrats were leading the charge. And Democrats are giddy with excitement over the GOP-crafted plan to raise the corporate minimum as high as $50,000 because, Hammond notes:

it would generate an additional $150 million for each two-year budget.

And that should tell you everything you need to know about the supposed victory of the GOP, about the party's commitment to low taxes, and about the Republicans' support for small businesses.

Understatement of the Day: Beaverton 'fees'

The Oregonian's Washington County blog made me laugh today, as I caught an entry from a few days ago. Here's the first sentence:

Beaverton officials have created a list of 23 priority transportation projects totaling nearly $16.6 million that they would pay for if the city adopts new fees.

"If the city adopts new fees." That must be government speak for raising taxes. The estimated population of Beaverton in 2005 was 85,775, so to raise $16.55 million would mean requiring an additional $193 from every man, woman and child inside the city limits.

And they wonder why some people throw such a tissy over the annexation issue...