New GOP (Wash.) gas tax plan: A penny a year for 20 years

[Newsjock]

Yes, 20 cents a gallon. From the GOP. Run with it.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20XGR%20Gas%20Tax&dpfrom=th

By DAVID AMMONS
AP POLITICAL WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Sen. Dan Swecker has a simple plan for fixing state and local highways: raise the gasoline tax by a penny a gallon annually for the next 20 years.

Those pennies add up. His proposal would generate $12 billion over the next two decades, with $4.6 billion earmarked for local projects and $7.4 billion available for state and regional highway projects.

It's the latest proposal being floated by lawmakers who face a backlog of $50 billion in state and local transportation projects, including Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct and new freeway bridges over Lake Washington and the Columbia River at Vancouver.

Swecker, R-Rochester, the ranking Republican on the Senate Transportation Committee, wants the state to provide 50-50 matching funds for mega-projects in Central Puget Sound, Vancouver, Spokane and elsewhere.

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[barb162]

1. Since there will be no gasoline that's readily affordable, why fix the

roads. No cars, no gasoline...great roads?

[Journeyman]

6. We'll need the roads for our bikes and wagons . . .

n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. ...pulling the tarp off the wagon....

Whither art thou, mine donkey?

[KT2000]

2. for this they dumped the car tab fees?

sure - it was a tax that needed reforming, but now it looks like it is a move to save the wealthy from having to pay much in taxes. That was one they could not wiggle out of.

No - lets tax expensive fuel inefficient vehicles.

[underthedome]

3. Nah why do that?

Let's give those who buy gas sucking SUVs a tax break instead.

[kurtyboy]

4. I'm related to Swecker--sort of--and I'm surprised at his flexibility

My nephew just married his daughter. He seems to be pretty level-headed on a lot of issues. I have to talk with him more before passing judgment, but this bill seems somewhat progressive.

I thought he was gonna be stuck in the GOP mud, but he seems to be progressive compared to his contemporaries....

[Thor_MN]

5. $12 billion? Why not just pull out of Iraq three months early?

And you can have that $12 billion in 12 weeks instead of twenty years.