Our View The Tax Man Cometh for Us All

Our View

The Tax Man Cometh for Us All

Job 1:21: “And He said, The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Or should we now say, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the Republican politician with the reputation of giving back burdensome taxes to the masses of poor and the working class and possibly the wealthiest among us may now be the ONE who giveth and now the ONE who is taking away, blessed be the name of HUTCHINSON.

The great mystery as to how these politicians serving us in Little Rock are going to finally, after years, have intestinal fortitude to come up with a way convince us, the voters, we need to fork over three more cents per gallon for the gasoline we purchase on top of the already 21.5 cents per gallon (plus the federal excise tax of 18.4 cents per gallon) so that the bureaucratic highway department can stop complaining they don’t have enough money to keep pace with the state’s road, highway and bridge needs.

It was pretty much expected the governor and the rest of the politicians were going to pass this political hot potato on to us, the voters, to decide if we wanted to pay more fuel taxes but, now we know Hutchinson is going to be the one suggesting lawmakers should act on his proposal.

According to the Republican governor’s plan the new wholesale sales tax on motor fuels would increase the tax on gas by 3 cents per gallon and on diesel by 6 cents per gallon, and the new higher tax would be indexed, meaning it would increase by no more than 0.10 of a cent a year.

The beauty of Hutchinson’s plan is that this increased taxation would require just a simple majority vote for approval in the 100-member House and 35-member Senate.

Hutchinson also wants his fellow politicians to refer a proposed constitutional amendment to us, the voters, in the 2020 general election to permanently extend the halfcent sales tax for highways. Let’s remember folks we first approved this tax in 2012 for a 10-year period.

We’re being told that even with the increase in fuel taxes coupled with increased user fees, the governor is telling us that the middle and low income people will have net tax reductions this year as a result of all the tax cuts he has made since being elected, but some skeptics are saying the burden of these tax and fee increases will fall the hardest upon the poor and working people and having little impact on the wealthy.

We were somewhat amused when the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association said the association looks forward to supporting the six cent increase in diesel tax and why not? After all, the fact is that these increased transportation costs will only be passed down to the customers who in turn will increase their prices for their products to the consumers which happens to be the poor and working class Arkansans.

Let us make this very clear to our readers, Arkansans pay nearly $1 BILLION every year in state taxes and fees that they are told will help improve or maintain 102,000 miles of state highways, county roads and city streets.

And, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that is equivalent of $318 for each of the state’s 2 million residents. The $318 figure works out to every $26.50 a month for every Arkansan, the newspaper reported.

And finally folks, let us remind everyone that raising the fees was among the factors cited in Bill Clinton losing the governorship to Frank White in 1980.

Let’s also remember what Hutchinson is proposing certainly isn’t the only option lawmakers have considered in dealing with this nagging road funding issue. We would certainly hope lawmakers don’t just rubber stamp this idea without first considering all the other revenue alternatives that have been tossed around for years.