Opinion: Texas taxes

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So the lower house of the Texas legislature has approved a bill suspending the state’s gas tax for about 90 days at the height of the summer driving season. That’s not what caused me to spit out my coffee this morning while perusing the news; it’s the kind of lunacy you’d expect from the home of George W. Bush and Exxon-Mobil. What really fried my hash browns was the discovery that Texas imposes a gas tax of 20 cents a gallon—which is higher than California’s gas tax.

This state’s 18-cent gas tax hasn’t been raised in more than a decade. Because of inflation, that means the revenues it generates actually decline every year—and they’re going to fall even faster in the future because high prices are causing Californians to buy less gas. Because the gas tax is the state’s major source of funding for roads and public transportation, that means less money for transit at a time when it’s needed most. When gas prices rise, fewer people can afford to drive and the demand for public transit goes up.

The Texas House’s effort to suspend the gas tax is environmentally irresponsible and morally bankrupt. It would simply encourage more burning of fossil fuels at a time when the rest of the nation is seeking ways to reduce greenhouse gases and lower our reliance on foreign oil. Yet it beggars belief that a state full of politicians so shortsighted as to see this as a reasonable option still has a higher gas tax than environmentally progressive California.