Virginia Gas-tax proposal blasted

Never short of goofy ideas, it is not remarkable that the Virginia legislature had this come up for discussion

House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, dismissed as "a Rube Goldberg mechanism" a Senate proposal to allow refunds on any gasoline-tax increases.

Virginians would send their gas receipts to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which would refund any new boost above the state's retail 17.5-cents-a-gallon tax on motor fuels.

As part of its plan to create a dedicated pool of money for transit improvements, the Senate has proposed a 5 percent tax on the wholesale price of fuel. It is expected that such a tax would likely be passed on to consumers at the pump.

Only an elected official could have come up with this plan. Suspecting that this tax may increase the retail price of gas (which it would), someone put a provision in that would reimburse the retail purchaser the additional tax. This would have to cancel any credit for recognizing that the tax would increase the cost at the pump. They want to collect the money at the wholesale level then return the money post retail. they have to pay people to keep track of the money as it passes from one hand to the other making this a revenue negative process. Brilliant!

The purpose is to send money into a transpiration trust fund. Why not just designate a portion of the gas tax to that fund and save everyone the trouble and expense? Too simple, too common sense. How do we elect such people to office?

Update 17 Feb, 2006: 34 to 6 The Virginia Senate passes this bill. There is no shortage of nonsense in Richond. There may even be a surplus.