Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Finally, courage and common sense about raising taxes


Several generations of American voters have been deluded, principally by the Republican Party, into accepting as gospel that raising taxes is unnecessary and political suicide for any candidate.

It's been a winning bogeyman strategy for politicians, but a disaster for the nation's economy.

Perhaps we're now seeing the end to that fiscal nonsense.

Curiously and surprisingly, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, a Republican and no tax-and-spend liberal, is proposing that legislators in the nation's reddest state raise gas taxes to repair its neglected roads and bridges.

Otter's courage is not only admirable but also sound and utterly necessary.

The governor proposes to boost the present 25-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline and diesel fuels, and increase vehicle registration fees and enact a rental car tax. Cumulatively, the proposed new taxes would plump up the Idaho Transportation Department's budget and allow a start on a long-delayed $200-million-plus program of basic rehabilitation of roads and bridges.

Lawmakers last year brushed off Otter's requests for increased transportation taxes, clinging to the conservative dogma that raising taxes is a liberal no-no.

What has this stubborn shortsightedness and primeval political thinking gotten the state?

Roads and bridges have deteriorated and become unsafe. Moreover, repair work will be exponentially more expensive because of material costs that have risen during delays. Further delay by lawmakers will constitute dereliction of their sworn duty to the public.

The same strain of foolishness afflicted the Bush-Cheney administration. It not only gave tax breaks to the wealthy on the theory it would trickle down and create prosperity, but the administration refused to raise taxes even as it spent $10 billion per month for war and went hat-in-hand to other nations for bailout loans that have created the world's largest national debt.

Eventually, President Obama after taking office will be required to raise taxes and end the draining Iraq adventure.

Meanwhile, Gov. Otter has broken with his Republican Party's hardheaded attitude about raising taxes.

Now it's up to state legislators to act just as responsibly and provide Gov. Otter with the financial tools to work on the state's battered road system.

To argue that Idahoans can't afford higher fuel taxes is inane. The real question is can Idahoans afford the costs of accidents, injuries, vehicle repairs and lost business caused by roadways that are a menace to safety?




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