Barranco: Morris Mayors Join Effort To Repeal Gas Tax Escalator.

Contributed by Jersey Conservative

With as little as two years in office, New Jersey legislators started collecting a 67% pay raise in January. And yet many of these same legislators are shying away from taking responsibility for a job that was traditionally theirs: Raising or lowering taxes. That’s more pay for less work.

Ten years ago, bipartisan legislation was passed to bailout the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) and provide a “permanent” fix to funding road and bridge construction in New Jersey. Like the state income tax, which turns 50 in July, this legislation was sold by politicians as a way to prevent higher property taxes.

Well, they lied. In both instances, property taxes went up anyway. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in America.

New Jersey used to have almost the lowest gas tax in America. Now it has one of the highest. When the TTF bailout was passed, the gas tax went up 23 cents immediately, but that wasn’t the worse feature of their bailout.

250 years ago, America was founded on the cause of “No Taxation Without Representation”. The gas tax escalator changed that.

Instead of the elected representatives of the taxpayers – the legislators – having responsibility for deciding to increase the tax on gasoline. Instead of making the Legislature explain to the voters each and every time they increase taxes, the bailout created a gas tax escalator, which empowered Trenton bureaucrats to raise the tax on gasoline whenever they needed to keep revenues at the level to support their programs.

That’s why the gas tax keeps going up. It’s why it went up another 4.2 cents in January. Sales of gasoline were down… so the tax went up.

The War in Iran and the disruption of oil supplies is raising the price of gasoline and suppressing sales. Get ready for another gas tax increase. It is coming. The only question is how much.

There’s another issue at play here too. The gas tax escalator allows the Legislature to avoid taking responsibility for tax increases on gasoline – a product most people use every day. So, these legislators got a 67% pay raise for less responsibility. That isn’t right.

It is time for the Legislature to take responsibility and prevent further increases in the gas tax by repealing the gas tax escalator. Assemblyman Bob Auth has a bill to do that, but Republicans in his own caucus are briefing against his legislation. They want to keep the gas tax escalator.

Now local Republicans are courageously stepping up and providing the leadership that is lacking in the Legislature. Among those stepping up is Chris Barranco, a former Assemblyman and candidate for Mayor in Jefferson Township. He wrote to Morris County mayors asking them to support a resolution in their municipalities asking the Legislature to repeal the gas tax escalator:

The Legislature might like the idea of getting more taxpayers’ money to spend while avoiding responsibility for raising taxes, but average citizens and many local Republicans do not. Taxpayers are tired of ever-increasing taxes and poorly performing roads.

We will continue to keep you informed of the progress of this effort. Stay tuned…