Let's tax gasoline

The experts say the price curve for gasoline is inelastic and will stay so for the immediate future. That is, people aren’t going to stop buying gas regardless of the price. They may look for jobs closer to home, may even quit working for a while as many have already done, but they’re not going to stop refilling their gas tank when their tank is empty.

So here’s my plan. Place a $1.00 State Tax on every gallon of gasoline. Unfair, outrageous? Not at all, either that dollar goes to us the taxpayer or it goes to the oil companies as soon as they realize they can raise the price of gasoline and get away with it.

Now, I know your favorite talk show host says that taxes are bad, that all they pay for is welfare, people who couldn’t otherwise afford medical care, supplements to education, inspection of scales, highways, and the environment, and crooked politicians. But then your talk show host probably owns stock in those oil companies. I don’t. My surplus cash gets eaten up at the pump. And some of those State services sound pretty good to me like more employees at the DMV, more teachers per pupil, and more law enforcement directed at putting away crooked politicians and welfare cheats.