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Off Topic: Governor Ivey's proposed gas tax increase
Posted on 3/2/19 at 8:42 pm
Posted on 3/2/19 at 8:42 pm
Where do you stand on it?
I am 100% opposed to it, for several reasons:
1) My father owns a small business. He drives 35,000+ miles every year. He has to fill up his truck usually 3 times per week. For the average driver, this tax will cost them about $55 more per year, so you can imagine what it will cost people like my dad. That hurts when you are a small business that operates on a budget.
2) I want to see a good faith effort to cut waste in spending first. In other words, I want to see some sort of proof from the government that there is nowhere else in the current budget to get the money needed to fix roads. There is a stretch of I-65 that I travel everyday that is covered in pot holes, but that doesn't change the fact that the state government has not shown us that the money isn't already available.
3) I have heard from State Auditor Jim Ziegler that around $63 mil. per year is diverted from highway funds every year for other uses. If that is true, it needs to stop and that money should be used before implementing any new taxes.
4) Maybe I am overly suspicious, but I just don't totally trust an extremely corrupt state government when it makes a broad statement that it will use this tax revenue for "infrastructure, roads, etc," to actually use it for that purpose. I'd like to see a more comprehensive infrastructure/road plan.
I am 100% opposed to it, for several reasons:
1) My father owns a small business. He drives 35,000+ miles every year. He has to fill up his truck usually 3 times per week. For the average driver, this tax will cost them about $55 more per year, so you can imagine what it will cost people like my dad. That hurts when you are a small business that operates on a budget.
2) I want to see a good faith effort to cut waste in spending first. In other words, I want to see some sort of proof from the government that there is nowhere else in the current budget to get the money needed to fix roads. There is a stretch of I-65 that I travel everyday that is covered in pot holes, but that doesn't change the fact that the state government has not shown us that the money isn't already available.
3) I have heard from State Auditor Jim Ziegler that around $63 mil. per year is diverted from highway funds every year for other uses. If that is true, it needs to stop and that money should be used before implementing any new taxes.
4) Maybe I am overly suspicious, but I just don't totally trust an extremely corrupt state government when it makes a broad statement that it will use this tax revenue for "infrastructure, roads, etc," to actually use it for that purpose. I'd like to see a more comprehensive infrastructure/road plan.
This post was edited on 3/2/19 at 8:43 pm
Posted on 3/2/19 at 8:50 pm to Roll Tide Ravens
I'm against it. We all know that the money wouldn't go where she is saying.
Posted on 3/2/19 at 9:13 pm to Cobrasize
I'm a consultant that works for ALDOT...please vote yes. There are a lot of road/bridge work that needs to get done and a lot of people (jobs are directly related) that need that gas tax to pass. I don't disagree that the budget could be tighten up in other areas, but...anyways, I have said my peace!! lol
Posted on 3/2/19 at 11:46 pm to Roll Tide Ravens
Just legalize the lottery.
Sure, you can say the lottery goes to education, just divert the moneys going to education now to the highway budget, problem solved.
Let the idiots that can't figure out math pay for the roads.
Sure, you can say the lottery goes to education, just divert the moneys going to education now to the highway budget, problem solved.
Let the idiots that can't figure out math pay for the roads.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 12:07 am to Roll Tide Ravens
quote:
State Auditor Jim Ziegler
Never listen to anything Ziegler says. Especially about anything regarding spending or appropriations.
In Alabama, the state auditor is neither an auditor nor an accountant. The department exists solely to maintain an inventory of state property.
quote:
I want to see some sort of proof from the government that there is nowhere else in the current budget to get the money needed to fix roads.
Again, that's not the way it works in Alabama. Almost all state revenue is earmarked, and can't be diverted to other programs without a near act of God. The use for various taxes and other receipts are literally written into the state constitution.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 12:10 am to East Coast Band
quote:
Just legalize the lottery.
Only if they don't earmark the funds for education. The ETF in Alabama is the largest it has ever been. Money is DESPERATELY needed in other areas, particularly infrastructure.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 3:37 am to Evolved Simian
quote:
Again, that's not the way it works in Alabama. Almost all state revenue is earmarked, and can't be diverted to other programs without a near act of God. The use for various taxes and other receipts are literally written into the state constitution.
My point is that I’d like to feel like they’ve actually trimmed out the waste before going for tax increases.
This post was edited on 3/3/19 at 3:38 am
Posted on 3/3/19 at 4:24 am to Evolved Simian
Divert education money?
Seriously is that what the state of Alabama needs or any southern states?
Seriously is that what the state of Alabama needs or any southern states?
Posted on 3/3/19 at 6:42 am to Roll Tide Ravens
quote:
1) My father owns a small business. He drives 35,000+ miles every year. He has to fill up his truck usually 3 times per week. For the average driver, this tax will cost them about $55 more per year, so you can imagine what it will cost people like my dad. That hurts when you are a small business that operates on a budget
Probably about $150-200 if $55 will be average. Most people put ~10k miles on their vehicle every year. Assuming the money actually goes to infrastructure that's really not that bad. You pay more than that every year for Netflix.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 7:43 am to East Coast Band
quote:
Just legalize the lottery.
Or, as I like to call it, a state tax on stupid people. Or uneducated people, poor people...whatever.
Drive up to Tennessee sometime, hang out in a convenience store for an hour, and see who comes in to buy lottery tickets.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea...but let's call it what it really is.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 7:53 am to YStar
quote:
Divert education money?
Seriously is that what the state of Alabama needs or any southern states?
You're talking about diverting lottery money that isn't even there.
Alabama politicians continue to look like backwood, bible thumping, hillbilly fools.
Alabama residents flock to the state line boarder convenience stores to buy lottery tickets. They pay to help fund education and resources for other state's children, while they stand on their hypocritical "morals".
Posted on 3/3/19 at 7:55 am to Roll Tide Ravens
100% in favor of it. I just wish it was an increase of more than 10 cents.
This post was edited on 3/3/19 at 7:56 am
Posted on 3/3/19 at 7:56 am to BamaGradinTn
quote:
Just legalize the lottery.
Or, as I like to call it, a state tax on stupid people. Or uneducated people, poor people...whatever.
That stupid tax helped to fund a hell of a lot of resources to my children's schools in Georgia, then paid for their college educations. I'm pretty sure it helps kids go to college that, in Alabama, might not be able to afford it. So who's the stupid?
Posted on 3/3/19 at 7:59 am to John Milner
I've lived in Georgia most of my life, but I also own property in Alabama. I pay more property tax on a rental house and half acre lot in Georgia than I do for a house and 220 acres in Alabama. You want to increase revenue? Charge a reasonable rate for property tax, and quit affording so called farmers so many tax breaks.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 8:15 am to John Milner
quote:That'll never happen. Every homeowner in Alabama would take up torches and pitchforks over that! Every rural state has taxes that are too high, AND too low....but try to equalize them and see what'll happen.
You want to increase revenue? Charge a reasonable rate for property tax, and quit affording so called farmers so many tax breaks.
If Ivey was smart, she'd tell the voters that the state needed to either raise the gas tax, or build a series of toll bridges over the state to pay for the infrastructure, THEN she'd get her bump.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 8:18 am to coachcrisp
quote:Already planning to toll in Mobile.
or build a series of toll bridges over the state to pay for the infrastructure
Posted on 3/3/19 at 8:21 am to coachcrisp
quote:
You want to increase revenue? Charge a reasonable rate for property tax, and quit affording so called farmers so many tax breaks.
That'll never happen. Every homeowner in Alabama would take up torches and pitchforks over that!
So the residents of Alabama won't pass the lottery because of a hypocritical moral superiority, and they won't pay a reasonable property tax because, well because. So you get what you got.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 8:35 am to John Milner
Yep. Everybody wants a tax that other folks are gonna pay!
Posted on 3/3/19 at 8:37 am to pvilleguru
quote:Let'em get a taste of that, then run the "tax" idea at'em...they'll pass it.
quote:
or build a series of toll bridges over the state to pay for the infrastructure
Already planning to toll in Mobile.
Posted on 3/3/19 at 8:56 am to coachcrisp
The lottery is paying for a LOT of kids in Georgia and Florida to go to college with either reduced or zero tuition thanks to Bright Scholars money. Some of those kids couldn’t go any other way and Alabama is helping pay for them.
Property tax in Alabama is stupidly, ridiculously low and you aren’t going to hurt the single homeowner very much or even large farmers. US Steel, Jim Walter, and other huge corporations own thousands of acres in Alabama. They would be the ones hit hardest by a property tax increase to levels commensurate with other states. That would make the most sense but that is why it won’t happen. Those companies lobby enough to make sure it doesn’t happen but it should.
Property tax in Alabama is stupidly, ridiculously low and you aren’t going to hurt the single homeowner very much or even large farmers. US Steel, Jim Walter, and other huge corporations own thousands of acres in Alabama. They would be the ones hit hardest by a property tax increase to levels commensurate with other states. That would make the most sense but that is why it won’t happen. Those companies lobby enough to make sure it doesn’t happen but it should.
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