TSONGAS

From the Des Moines Register:

Motorists in Iowa could be asked to pay higher taxes at the fuel pump to cope with soaring costs of road construction and declining highway tax revenues, industry officials said today.

The Iowa Legislative Services Agency issued a financial report today which said Iowa's Road Use Tax Fund faces a decline in revenue for only the second time in the past 26 years...

...The other fees could include those charged for driver's licenses, pickup truck licenses or other motor vehicle registrations, or other fees, he said.

"The fact of the matter is that the real money to be generated is at the gas tax level," Scott added. A 5-cent increase in Iowa's fuel tax would generate an additional $110 million annually.

Iowa motorists currently pay taxes of 21 cents per gallon on regular gasoline, 19 cents a gallon on ethanol-blended gasoline; 17 cents a gallon for E-85 fuel; and 22.5 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.

See what happens when you elect Democrats? They instantly want to raise every fucking tax on the planet.

But the fact remains that pickup truck owners in Iowa do not pay their fair share when it comes to vehicle registration fees thanks to an old scam by lobbyists on behalf of farmers. Nevermind that 90% of the nearly 1.4 million pickup trucks in Iowa are driven by city slickers. If you own a gas guzzling pickup in Iowa, like a $35,000 Dodge Ram Hemi that gets 14 mpg in the city, you pay a flat fee of $65 a year while somebody who owns a gas sipping Toyota Corolla can pay nearly $200 a year.

This issue has been mentioned before in the State 29 blog.

Just making pickup truck owners pay their fair share of registration fees would bring in nearly $200 million a year.

Raising gas taxes on everybody in Iowa is not necessary in order to meet projected road building costs in the future. Just eliminate the tax break on fancy new pickup trucks that suburban-dwelling men with small penises lust after.