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Illinois Governor Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker is pushing for a huge increase in Illinois’ sales tax on gasoline as he and his collaborators in the general assembly justify their actions with distorted information.
“The proposed hike in
gasoline taxes is a scam,” according to Jim Tobin, president of Taxpayers
United of America (TUA). “The reasons given for raising gasoline taxes are
false.”
A bill introduced in the
State Senate would double the Illinois gas tax, from 19 cents to 38 cents per
gallon, and hike vehicle registration fees supposedly to pay for repairs to
roads, bridges and other “infrastructure.”
“We now have
pothole-ridden roads that we can’t afford to fix and more than 2,300 bridges
that are rated as structurally deficient,” contended State Sen. Martin Sandoval
(D-11, Cicero), chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.
Sandoval proposed an
amendment to Senate Bill 103, which would create almost $2 billion in new taxes
annually. The doubling of the motor fuel tax per gallon to 38 cents would take
effect July 2019.
However, according to
Randal O’Toole, a Cato Institute Senior Fellow, Illinois’ highway
infrastructure is actually in fairly good shape, despite the pronouncement of
Pritzker that infrastructure is “crumbling across the state.” The
transportation system with serious infrastructure problems is urban transit.
“The real problem with
Illinois’ transit infrastructure is not that it is worn out but that it is
obsolete and no longer successfully serves the needs of the typical state
resident,” says O’Toole.
“By two important
measures the roads are in good shape and getting better,” states O’Toole.
“First, only 2,303 bridges, or less than 9 percent of the total, were
considered structurally deficient in 2017. This is a substantial reduction from
the 4,494 highway bridges, or 18 percent of the total, that were classified
structurally deficient in 1992. ‘Structurally deficient,’ by the way, doesn’t
mean that a bridge is in danger of collapsing or poses a safety risk. Instead,
it only means is that the cost of maintaining a bridge is greater than it
should be and, in some cases, the load limits for the bridges have been
reduced.”
“The second measure
showing that Illinois roads are improving is a standardized roughness index
used by the Federal Highway Administration to grade highways. According to this
index, Illinois roads are 35 percent less rough today than they were in 1995.”
In
its 23rd Annual Highway Report, the Reason Foundation revealed that Illinois
Ranks 28th Overall in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness. In other
words, it’s in the middle of the pack. In fact, in some areas, Illinois roads
do quite well. “Illinois’s best rankings are rural Interstate pavement
condition (tied for 1st), rural arterial pavement condition (3rd) and urban
Interstate pavement condition (5th).”
“Illinois ranks 15th in fatality
rate, 7th in deficient bridges, 1st (tie) in rural Interstate pavement
condition, 5th in urban Interstate pavement condition….”
“Obviously, there are other reasons Illinois
Democrats and Senator Bill Brady (R-44) want to raise gasoline taxes,” said
Tobin. “Due to the state’s lavish, gold-plated pension plans for retired
government employees, the state’s pension plans and finances generally are in
dire condition, and rather than cut spending and revise the government
pensions, the Democrats and Bill Brady are again kicking the can down the road
with as many tax hikes as they can get away with.”
