Umm, No More Taxes

From the Las Vegas Sun: Transportation experts say if lawmakers don’t approve legislation to increase revenue for street and road projects, they’d only have about $22.4 million a year for new construction — about enough to build one freeway interchange, one mile of road or one beltway segment without bridges.
Members of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada received a briefing today from General Manager Tina Quigley, who made a similar presentation to legislators last month in support of Assembly Bill 413, which would enable the Clark County Commission to implement fuel tax indexing....
The RTC board, which includes elected officials from Clark County and its municipalities, approved a resolution in support of fuel-tax indexing.
Under Assembly Bill 413, the County Commission would be allowed to raise or lower fuel taxes annually based on the movement of the producer price index. In theory, that would enable the county to collect taxes at the same rate as historical increases in the cost of highway and street construction. The index would be based on a rolling 10-year average to avoid major spikes in the tax.
Finance experts say a 5.81 percent increase in the index based on a 10-year average would increase revenue to $26.8 million the first year, $55.3 million the second year and $85.3 million the third.
The estimated increase in fuel tax would be 3 cents a gallon the first year to 6.2 cents the second year and 9.6 cents the third with indexing.
The RTC also is monitoring another fuel-tax bill. Senate Bill 377 would increase the tax by 2 cents a gallon on a variety of fuels at the beginning of each calendar year through 2023, beginning Jan. 1, 2014.  http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2013/apr/11/rtc-manager-says-fuel-tax-hike-needed-fund-road-pr/
No,the fuel tax should not be raised. We have some of the highest gas prices in the nation, on average and the tax is not needed.  Get the money from somewhere else or reduce the projects that are supposedly needed.
And the effects will not just affect drivers, it will also increase the cost of food and other items that are transported to stores.
Finally, we ought to be competing against California for businesses to relocate from their tax hell.  Raising the gas tax rate doesn't help our cause.
So, no to the fuel tax hike and reduce the number of road projects.  We don't need to subsidize the road builder industry.