Bipartisan Duo Aims To Hike Gas Taxes

A bipartisan Senate duo is proposing a 25 cent tax increase in gasoline prices in an effort to create jobs and help sustain an aging national infrastructure system.

In a letter to Obama’s debt commission, Sens. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) wrote that because the last tax increase on gasoline was in 1993, funding for infrastructure maintenance has been supported by the General Fund, a notion they both oppose.

“This proposal will fix the transportation program’s major fiscal challenges. It will remove the approaching need for further General Fund transfers to the Highway Trust Fund, will provide additional deficit reduction, will supply essential investment for transportation infrastructure, and will create more than 750,000 jobs,” the letter reads.

The senators suggest that taxes be increased on gasoline prices by one cent every month for 25 months, yielding a 25 cent tax hike. Ten cents of the total tax increase would be temporarily dedicated towards deficit reduction, raising nearly $83 billion over 5 years, the letter reads. While the remaining 15 cents will directly fund maintaining the country’s infrastructure. 

This may be the first of many new forms of legislation aimed at reducing the nation’s deficit, but this may be met with GOP opposition since tax increases are something the party has pledged not to pursue.