gas taxes

I don't blog much about CT state politics. Frankly, I doubt the rest of the country cares much, and I also try and give the locals some slack as to trying to do their business.

The Wall Street Journal is a bit less reticent, especially as new Governor Dannel Malloy styles himself the "anti-Christie".  Malloy's idea was that CT should increase revenues in order to limit budget cuts. So, is "shared sacrifice" a political winner?

Hmmm, it may be running into a brick wall at the local gas pump.

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) - Governor Malloy's state budget plan appears to be heading for a crash over the gas tax.

 With gas prices going up by the day, members of Malloy's own political party are balking at voting for a plan that includes a hike in the gas tax. Democratic leaders over at the State Capitol say they intend to vote on the Malloy budget plan by Tuesday, but this is holding things up. At one gas station across from the Capitol Complex regular was $4.36 a gallon today, and one of the reasons it's so high is because of state taxes. The reason the taxes are so high is because, unlike our neighboring states, Connecticut has no highway or bridge tolls of any kind. The entire transportation fund for road and bridges and public transit is generated through the taxes on gasoline. Governor Malloy's budget plan includes another three cent hike in the gas tax starting Jul. 1.

Let's just say it is... hmm. an inauspicious time to raise what are already among the highest gas taxes in the nation.  (Just a few miles into MA gas is 40 cents a gallon cheaper).  And this is not the only tax hike the Malloy budget aims at the working & middle class, as he now plans to tax clothing costing less than $50. 

Perhaps the most bizarre element of this difficult episode is that Malloy's hand-picked energy czar, former Yale academic Dan Esty, is a vociferous cheerleader for massive tax hikes on energy usage.  

According to Commissioner Esty, we need more pain at the pump.

The best way to drive energy innovation would be an emissions charge of $5 per ton of greenhouse gases beginning in 2012, rising to $100 per ton by 2032. The low initial charge, starting next year, would make the short-term burden on consumers and businesses almost negligible. .....

Our proposal would apply to all greenhouse gas emissions, so that everybody, and every fossil-fuel-dependent form of energy, would be included. Coal-burning power plants would pay based on the emissions measured at their smokestacks. Oil companies would pay for every gallon of gas or oil delivered. Yes, these costs would be passed on to consumers, but this is what motivates changes in behavior and technological investments. (Emphasis added-IM)

You see, unless those benighted consumers in their SUV's and their warm homes get hammered even worse, there will be no positive changes in technology to improve energy efficiency, as per Professor Esty. And of course, notwtihstanding the worst job market since the early 1980's, "instituting a carbon charge would have only a minimal impact on American competitiveness".

Two words. Yeah. Right.

Of course, Dan Esty is part of CT's new "power couple"

---his wife Elizabeth is the new wannabe congressperson from Connecticut 5.  

She seeks to be the new Democrat in the district to replace job hopper Chris Murphy.

Esty's political approach was to run as a centrist soccer mom in a suburban district. Never mentioning her Yale Law degree. Or her prior legal work on a highly controversial assisted suicide case.   The 2008 Obama wave and her warm and fuzzy campaign propelled her to the legislature; once there, she promptly alienated her constituents    by demanding an end to capital punishment even though the most heinous murders in CT history occurred in her own district. 

 She was ousted even after she threw her own Democratic colleagues under the bus. 

So, if CT voters are eager to keep mass murderers coddled with 3 hots and a cot, and take out home equity loans to buy gasoline, well we can sacrifice even more than what Dan Malloy wants. We can turn the keys in DC over the the power couple of Dan and Elizabeth Esty.  ...  Blecch

Part of the gloomin and doomin these days is anticipating how bad things will be should Obama win and we lose more ground in Congress.

Well, if the GOP Congress behaves like the feckless zombies who squandered their majority in 2006, well we have a problem. But frankly, on a host of issues (border security; ANWR drilling; the death tax) that crowd threw a few bones to the base, and made like lap dogs to the "loyal opposition" and whoever wandered in off K Street to cajole them.

Better to have a handful of pit bulls than a kennel of lap dogs.  Welcome to the CT legislature, which is 2/1 Democratic.

In the wake of the '06 election there were heady times where huge spending programs were to be insituted, health care offered to all, and the rich duly soaked. Didn;t happen. One reason is the Democrats were split and had weak leadership. But even when Governor Jodi Rell started gettin wobbly about biprtisanship,there were the GOP legislators--particuarly the "Fighting 44" in the lower house.

In '07 they offered a "no tax increase" budget  when the Governor and the Democrats wer e floating tak hike trial balloons. While the spending level proved unsustainable, the GOP did limit the damage and prevent added revenue from fueling the economic fire in Hartford. They accomplished this by standing their ground, going to the microphones, and refusing to become marginalized. 

This year, they proposed freezing the scheduled increase in gasoline taxes. For months this was deemed grandstanding and inrresponsible. However, the GOP caucus in CT knew that @$4.25/gallon it was no time to tack on yet another 4 cents.  The lobbyists and the media were on one side; the drivers on the other.

Give this round to Joe Sixpack.  Would not have happened if the GOP legislators played the happy bipartisan game and hid in the tall grass hoping to avoid getting the voters attention on this one.http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2008/06/rell-willing-to-postpone-gas-t.html

We've had the worst of both worlds of late in DC---our party is accused of being right wing zealots and even worse, they are utter failures doing even that. The CT model is how to proceed. Not name calling or gimmicks. Just find a spot where the voters have your back and stand your ground.