Another Tax Idea: One Man's Opinion

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 03:46 AM

If the City of Prince George somehow is granted the authority to put a tax on gas bought in this city and uses that tax towards road rehabilitation, it suddenly opens up a new can of worms.

Just follow the leader. Where is the most gas pumped in the greater Vancouver area? Strangely enough just outside of the city proper where people can avoid the city's gas tax of 6 cents per litre.

The traffic goes to where it can buy the cheapest gas, nothing wrong with that and so, service stations outside of the city proper would suddenly find they are busier than usual.

If the City wants to go into the gas tax business, then they ought to lobby the Province and the Federal government with a view to getting some of that tax that we are already paying to the feds.

That makes the tax fair to all.

Tractor trailers, heavy equipment haulers, logging trucks put the most stress on our roads how do you ensure that they pay their share?

Will those users of fuel who buy from a bulk plant outside of the city but use that product in the city be subject to the tax and how will that be collected.?

We dropped the ball long ago when it comes to paying for road repairs, and now we're been hit with a road tax to pay for the work. There were calls for road rehabilitation for the past ten years but the Councils of the day opted to ignore the fact that asphalt has a shelf life. It left us with some new facilities but getting to use those facilities becomes a chore because of our road conditions.

Instead of trying to find a new source of revenue to pay for work that should come from the overall budget in the city, Council is again off looking for a new means of taxing those people who pay the bills. Whether you are collecting that money from the home owner or the driver it still must come from the same pair of jeans, just a different pocket.

If we had to, we could find $2 million dollars a year in our budget to do this work without ever increasing the taxes, all that would take is the will.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

Previous Story - Next Story

Email |

Print |

Facebook |

Twitter |

Digg |

Del.icio.us

Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 03:46 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

Return to Home

Comments

Posted by: Mcfly on April 18 2007 3:21 PM

I live near the Petro Can in Beaverly, I will just always fill up there is all...no sweat, tax away Oh great city of PG.

Posted by: camoose on April 18 2007 10:46 PM

Being a little long in the tooth, I seem to recall a line of verbal diahrea by the government that when the gas taxes were put in place, they were to pay for roads and highways. Most governments of all political stripes seem to have put most of it in general revenue to use as they see fit. Ad campaigns in Quebec, olympics in BC, gun control, fast ferries, Van. convention centre are several that spring to mind. It is about time that politicians at all levels are made to be accountable to the people who fill their coffers with our hard earned money. It's time for all forms of taxation \user fees be dedicated to a specific use and not for politicians to use as a pork barrel to cover their own incompetency. Nuff said..I live close to the city limits and will definitely buy gas where ever it is the cheapest.

Posted by: Mcfly on April 19 2007 9:55 AM

You want the Gov to become accountable ?

Well good luck with that...while it would be nice, it will never happen.

The gov just takes and takes...and basically says, screw you, to us citizens.

Posted by: Chadermando on April 19 2007 1:10 PM

My take was the current proposal is for our city to get our sahre of the already collected gas tax that currently is collected by the provincial and federal governments. That seems to be more than fair to me and is not an increase in tax, but rather a reallocation of an existing tax towards its intended expenditure purpose.

Adding a gas tax of our own in the city of PG would be an entirely different proposal. Still a better idea than a home tax and could easily involve the regional district rather than just the city boundaries.

Either or the gas tax is the way to pay for road repairs and improvements. The home tax should be reduced by any new gas tax collected for road repairs.

I agree we need to get the dedicated taxes out of the hands of politicians and ensure by law if need be that those taxes go to what they were originially implimented to address. The $40 Billion dollar EI surplus is another example of such a tax being reallocated for buying votes for a sub group of politicians at the expense of everyone who pays the tax. Between EI and the gas tax you have the governments current surplus.

Posted by: Chester on April 19 2007 10:29 PM

My God, how can anyone support yet another tax for anything? For any reason. Enough already. No more. Make do with what they get. Pay off their debts and reduce our taxes.

Stop and think for a second why there is such an attraction to operate an illegal business or an underground economy? It at least eliminates the tax on income. Then if you only buy stolen goods, no GST or PST either.

Gee, wonder why the burden is so high on the rest of us peasants? Keep working, their are more government offices and subsidized agencies we need to fund. Chester