Petersen: Eliminating Gas Tax, Funding Transportation Through Sales Tax Makes No Sense

Sen. Chap Petersen (D-34) called Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal to eliminate the gas tax and fund state transportation projects by increasing the sales tax nonsensical in a blog post Wednesday.

McDonnell's plan calls for the elimination of the 17.5 cents per gallon gas tax and an increase of the sales tax from 5 percent to 5.8 for more than $600 million in more transportation funds. Read more about the proposal here.

If it passes, Virginia would be the first state to fund transportation projects this way.

Petersen said:

"The [Governor's] justification is that the gas tax at a fixed rate brings in less money in our hybrid age.  But that hardly seems like a reason to jettison it.  (And no other state has). 

Indeed, eliminating our traditional road funding because cars are more efficient makes about as much sense as canceling your child’s college fund because tuition keeps rising."

Read his blog post in its entirety on OxRoadSouth.