Our Taxes, Our Roads, Bridges, Trains, and Buses

What does this have to do with Newburyport?

Nothing really unless you:

• drive the potholes of Routes 495 and 95 or
• cross the rusty Whittier Bridge or
• ride the undermarketed and underused Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority bus which actually is a viable way to get around Newburyport assuming you knew anything about it or
  
• use the woefully inadequate (yet free for all including NH drivers who park their cars for 28 days while escaping the winter via Logan) Park N' Ride or
• use Commuter Rail jamming your paper parking dollars into a little slot so you can ride an awfully late train into Boston.

I support the whole notion of 'Reform before Revenue'. I think the Governor and Legislature have begun the reform process and you can see the details here. I'm all for merging many independent turfs into one MassTrans, getting rid of ridiculous pension benefits, paying off debt in a responsible way.

I'm also for paying for what needs to be done.

I think an additional 19 cents per gallon is a reasonable way to pay for it. The Globe makes a compelling case here in this editorial. There has been no increase in the gas tax in many many years and the results are evident unless you've been living in a cave. I drive 68 miles back and forth to work each day in a car with 145,000 miles on it, so I will feel the pain in the pump, but that is preferable to feeling the pain in the bumps. (Okay, that's really bad but second cup of coffee hasn't kicked in)

By the way, NH has a proposal on the table for a 15 cent increase phased in over three years. So I guess I won't be driving 10 miles back and forth to Seabrook to load up on that cheap gas because it won't be that cheap.

From the picture painted by the Boston Herald, Barbara Anderson, and some MA Republicans, one would think that NH is a land of free milk and honey. Last time I looked their meals tax was 8%, their property taxes included a local tax AND a state tax, their toll whacks drivers for taking a 15 mile short cut through their state, and their hard alcohol is sold in State stores only. Talk about creeping Socialism!

Currently Fed Gas tax per gallon is 18.4 cents, MA State tax is 23.5 which includes 2 cents for Underground Storage Tank removal statewide, and NH is 19.6 cents. Yeah, we're not much cheaper than NH and if ours goes up 19 cents and theirs goes up 15 cents....well you do the math.

Additional data below from http://www.massachusettsgasprices.com/tax_info.aspx which is I've distilled into Fed and state data. I'd be happy to email you a little Excel Chart I made from the data.

State	Fed Gas Tax	State Gas Tax
Alabama	18.40	20.20
Alaska	18.40	8.00
Arizona	18.40	19.00
Arkansas	18.40	21.80
California	18.40	45.50
Colorado	18.40	22.00
Connecticut	18.40	44.10
Delaware	18.40	23.00
Dist. of Columbia	18.40	20.00
Florida	18.40	33.20
Georgia	18.40	26.00
Hawaii	18.40	32.60
Idaho	18.40	25.00
Illinois	18.40	39.50
Indiana	18.40	31.70
Iowa	18.40	21.70
Kansas	18.40	25.00
Kentucky	18.40	18.50
Louisiana	18.40	20.00
Maine	18.40	29.10
Maryland	18.40	23.50
Massachusetts	18.40	23.50
Mass Proposed 19 cent	18.40	42.50
Michigan	18.40	36.00
Minnesota	18.40	22.00
Mississippi	18.40	18.80
Missouri	18.40	17.60
Montana	18.40	27.80
Nebraska	18.40	23.90
Nevada	18.40	32.50
New Hampshire	18.40	19.60
NH Proposed 15 cent	18.40	34.50
New Jersey	18.40	14.50
New Mexico	18.40	18.00
New York	18.40	41.20
North Carolina	18.40	30.20
North Dakota	18.40	23.00
Ohio	18.40	28.00
Oklahoma	18.40	17.00
Oregon	18.40	25.00
Pennsylvania	18.40	32.30
Rhode Island	18.40	31.00
South Carolina	18.40	16.80
South Dakota	18.40	24.00
Tennessee	18.40	21.40
Texas	18.40	20.00
Utah	18.40	24.50
Vermont	18.40	20.00
Virginia	18.40	19.60
Washington	18.40	36.00
West Virginia	18.40	31.50
Wisconsin	18.40	32.90
Wyoming	18.40	14.00