Republican members of the Legislature gathered Tuesday at a gas station to demand action by Gov. John Baldacci and to protest the high cost of gasoline. Unfortunately, they’ve also decided to use high prices as a vehicle to reduce state spending on health care.
They presented a list of ideas on how state government could help ease the impact that Hurricane Katrina has had on prices. Some of the ideas are worth investigation.
The idea to temporarily change the work schedules of some state employees from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days could ease the fuel bills for state workers, even if it’s unlikely to have a large impact on the overall demand for fuel.
Expanding state efforts to increase car pooling and alternative methods of commuting also has merit.
But the centerpiece of their plan – to suspend Maine’s 25.9-cent gasoline tax for at least 60 days – is a bad idea.
While suspending the tax would provide some immediate relief at the gas pump, the effects on state revenues could be disastrous. The state estimates such a tax holiday could reduce revenue, which is used to fund Maine State Police and road and bridge construction, by as much as $42 million.
Anti-tax advocate U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has said that now is not the time to reduce the tax on gasoline. As reported by the Reuters news service, speaking of the idea to cut the federal tax, DeLay said: “Absolutely not … Now more than ever you’re going to need … that infrastructure, those highway trust funds, to rebuild the bridges that were destroyed, rebuild the railroads that were destroyed. You have to have the infrastructure or you can’t have a recovery.”
State Republicans, of course, don’t want to cut highway funding or the state police. They want to cut other state spending, namely on health care and Dirigo Choice. The temporary gasoline tax cut is another attempt to starve the fledgling program that many of them despise. They’ve adopted a new tactic of piggybacking their attack on the difficulty caused by high gasoline prices. It might make good politics, but it’s bad policy.
Gas prices have already stabilized since last week, and even dropped in many locations. Our state infrastructure, however, still needs investment, and there’s an honest-to-goodness crisis in health care. Reducing the state’s ability to address those problems solves nothing.
There are steps the state can take to ease the burden created by gas prices that have approached $4 a gallon. Republican lawmakers have come up with a list of ideas to continue that conversation. A tax holiday, however, is the wrong way to go.
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