Doyle Considers Gas Tax Increase

"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."

--JIM DOYLE

Jim Doyle obviously has changed his mind since he made that statement about raising taxes.

It won't be all that much longer before Wisconsin voters have the opportunity to hold him accountable.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Gov. Jim Doyle said a proposal to raise the gas tax by 3 cents a gallon was worthy of consideration, despite a 2006 campaign promise not to increase that tax during his second term of office.

He also repeated comments made in December that the state probably should not have eliminated annual increases in the gas tax, even though he signed that change into law in 2005.

Doyle said his preference would be to tax oil companies rather than consumers, as he has long supported. But that proposal may not gain approval in the Legislature, which is searching for money to pay for roads and close a $5 billion, two-year shortfall.

Doyle's proposal would bar oil companies from passing the tax on to consumers, but critics say that provision violates the U.S. Constitution's protections of interstate commerce.

Doyle's proposal that Big Oil would pick up the tab was just stupid.

Of course, when a company is hit with a new tax, that increase is eventually passed on to the consumers. Doyle's plan to prevent oil companies to pass the tax on to consumers, by threatening them with up to six months in prison for violations, was idiotic.

So, allegedly regretfully, Doyle is forced to consider raising taxes directly on consumers.

...Wisconsin's gas tax is 32.9 cents a gallon, ranking among the top 10 in the nation, according to a state Department of Transportation analysis. The federal tax adds another 18.4 cents.

...Doyle said he would prefer to tax oil companies rather than consumers, but he praised the groups pushing the gas tax for coming up with a way to raise revenue for roads.

"I give credit to this group; they've at least come in with an alternative, and it's an alternative that is worthy of consideration," he said.

That's a different position than the one he held in 2006, when he was running for re-election and said he wouldn't raise the gas tax through 2010.

"I'm not going to raise the gas tax," he said in August 2006. "I think when we cut the automatic raise that that's where it should stay."

No, it's not an alternative that's worthy of consideration.

Consider something else.

Instead of applying stimulus money to high-speed rail, it should be used to fix the roads.

Shovels ready?