We all are smiling with joy as the gasoline prices in the Bay Area have receded from $4.25/gallon for regular to $1.69/gallon this week. But there is a lesson to be learnt here. As we celebrate this Christmas season with low gas prices, the State is facing the worst budget crisis of its times. The revenues from all those foreclosed homes have vanished, and what is being affected? The emergency services at hospitals are being reduces, the police forces in San Jose and Oakland are being cut, the hours of operation at the local library are fewer, the UC system will admit less student this year, funding for foster homes for the orphaned and homeless children are being cut.
Practically anything that defines a good social state is being adversely affected. (I know this is a capitalistic society, but not everyone can afford to go to private schools, or hire private body guards, or match the collection of the City Library). One thing that we can definitely is to apply is small gas tax. Ya, I know this would be a damper on the only silver lining in today’s picture, but if you do the maths, you will realize this is so easy to implement. We have already seen 4 bucks a gallon of gas, so seeing $2.10 or $2.40 for that matter will not kill us and here is the upside.
USA imported 10.03 million barrels of crude oil a day in 2007, for 356 days at 42 gallons to the barrel that is equal to 153.77 billion gallons of gasoline. With a 50 Cents of tax that would get us $76.8billion annually! Now that is a number not to snicker at.
In fact Tom and Ray Magliozzi (Car Talk guys, on NPR) gave a very logical use of this extra income.
Ray—”This new tax would generate between 50 and 100 billion dollars every year for the treasury. That money could be used to help rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges, and develop new technologies for more fuel-efficient cars… further decreasing demand for oil. This is a way for us to get on the wagon, and stop sending money to countries that don’t like us. We could become energy independent.
“The other thing that the gas tax revenue could fund is high-speed-train infrastructure between major cities. And who would build all of the new high-tech, high-speed trains we’d need? GM and Ford! We’d help them start a mass-transit division, convert some of those factories from building inefficient gas hogs to building high-speed trains.”
So what do you think of the idea?
Mayank-divvymyride.com
