Actually, they went down three cents over the weekend around here.
But they went up over night. Not because of any fluctuation in the trading market.
Nope, we got taxed again.
The gasoline tax is going up a penny-and-a-half to 37.5 cents a gallon in Washington.
A state Department of Licensing spokesman, Brad Benfield, says Tuesday’s hike is the last step of a 9.5 cent increase that has been phased in since 2005. It was approved by the Legislature to help fund nearly 300 projects over 16 years.
They include money the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Highway 520 floating bridge in Seattle. Other projects include more bridge repairs, reducing congesting, making highway safety improvements, and improving freight mobility.
With the way gasoline has been going up recently, Benfield says the tax increase is “not going to be real noticeable” because it’s a diminishing component of the overall price.
Oh, it’ll be noticed. This weekend was the first negative price change in months and everyone at work was talking about it this morning. Not the price drop, but the overnight increase back to almost where it was on Friday.
This tax increase was sold to the taxpayers back in 2005, when gas was less than $2.50. You remember, before the Democrats took control over the Congress. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Democrat majority in Washington about how the Viaduct was in imminent danger of collapse and the 520 bridge of sinking into Lake Washington.
We’re halfway through 2008 and, and all the way through each of the incremental increases, and oddly enough, no one is saying much about fixing those pieces of infrastructure. Hell, they haven’t even gotten a plan worked out as to what to do about either of them yet.
Funny how government works like that, isn’t it?
“The Politics of Fear” indeed.
If you ever wanted to know what it felt like to be a frog in a slowly-boiling pot of water…