A reader writes:
I want to tease out some deeper thinking around your support for a hefty increase in the gas tax. Yes, we have to kick our habit. Yes, a gas tax can be part of that process. But I need to hear some consideration of the impact that would have on the lower classes in America. It may be different on the East Coast, but I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and the poor and working classes are being pushed farther and farther from cities where their jobs are often located. Also, many working-class jobs require trucks to haul tools and supplies – maintenance, gardeners, handymen, etc. Even when mass transit reaches their homes, which it often doesn't, the prices there are on the rise. Bridge tolls are being raised year after year to reduce car usage.
What are we to do?
Logan Penza, a fiscal conservative, recently came around to the idea of a gas tax and considered its impact on the poor:
A gas tax increase doesn’t kidney punch consumers as much as in previous years. When gas was $1.75 a gallon, a gas tax increase looked pretty nasty, as it would proportionally add a great deal to the cost of transportation. But now that fuel-efficient cars are far more common and gas prices are already higher, even a large increase in the gas tax would not proportionally raise transportation costs all that much. To the degree that expensive cars are less fuel efficient, the burden would fall on those who are both choosing to accept that burden and largely more able to pay it.
And to the extent that it might impact the working poor who must rely on older and less fuel efficient cars to get to work (especially given the continuing lack of reliable and safe public transport in many cities), the effect could be mitigated by a needs-based voucher system entitling them to discounts and operated through the food stamps program.
Another idea aired on the Dish is to use the revenue from a gas tax to lower payroll taxes for the working poor. I'd favor that – but would make the trade-off slightly revenue-positive as a whole.
(Photo: Gas prices of more than $4.00 a gallon are displayed at a gas station on April 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. National gas prices jumped by 10 cents over a week. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles increased 2 cents to $4.124, rising for the 16th consecutive day. By Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The Dish 