The state of new Mexico has a 2 billion dollar state surplus after 8 years of booming oil and gas industry.
Now a bunch of democrats got voted in and they waste no time in passing new taxes.
Instant state wide buyers remorse.
A lot of them will be gone next election cycle because of this.
One of the things they want to do is raise the state fuel tax 10 cents a gallon on gasoline and diesel. NM has one of the lowest state gasoline tax rates in the nation at 17 cents per gallon.
I guess they didn't pay any attention to what happened in france. People don't like it when you mess with their fuel taxes.
This is why raising the fuel tax to fix the roads is BS. The state has had a surplus for the last 2 or 3 years and the roads didn't get fixed, they started redoing some roads last year if they were expansions, but just repairing existing roads, not so much and did it with out a tax increase.
Why would they suddenly get fixed now with the addition of a 10 cent fuel tax?
They're not and anyone who believes it is an idiot.
I have seen this before. When I lived in Virginia, the state fuel tax would be raised to "fix the roads" and nothing would change, if anything they stayed the same or got worse and all the money just went to I-81 and I-95 to mostly build more weight stations and buy road salt.
The biggest thing that seems to effect the amount of road work getting done appears to be crude oil and asphalt prices. All through 2010-2014 not a lot of road work got done here, not until oil prices broke below around $70 per barrel. When oil was over $100 a barrel they just posted a lower speed limits instead of fix the road.
If I though paying more taxes actually got me more services I would be all for it. If I though paying 10 cents a gallon for gas got 7 to 9 cents a gallon worth of better roads I would be like "shut up and take our money".
I don't have a dog in this fight, I mostly drive my leaf and this year my wife is likely getting a plug in hybrid hyundai, I expect our monthly gasoline bill to drop from $20 to $40 dollars per month down to effectively $0 so it really doesn't effect me. Better roads would be nice but I know it isn't going to happen.
Now a bunch of democrats got voted in and they waste no time in passing new taxes.
Instant state wide buyers remorse.
A lot of them will be gone next election cycle because of this.
One of the things they want to do is raise the state fuel tax 10 cents a gallon on gasoline and diesel. NM has one of the lowest state gasoline tax rates in the nation at 17 cents per gallon.
I guess they didn't pay any attention to what happened in france. People don't like it when you mess with their fuel taxes.
This is why raising the fuel tax to fix the roads is BS. The state has had a surplus for the last 2 or 3 years and the roads didn't get fixed, they started redoing some roads last year if they were expansions, but just repairing existing roads, not so much and did it with out a tax increase.
Why would they suddenly get fixed now with the addition of a 10 cent fuel tax?
They're not and anyone who believes it is an idiot.
I have seen this before. When I lived in Virginia, the state fuel tax would be raised to "fix the roads" and nothing would change, if anything they stayed the same or got worse and all the money just went to I-81 and I-95 to mostly build more weight stations and buy road salt.
The biggest thing that seems to effect the amount of road work getting done appears to be crude oil and asphalt prices. All through 2010-2014 not a lot of road work got done here, not until oil prices broke below around $70 per barrel. When oil was over $100 a barrel they just posted a lower speed limits instead of fix the road.
If I though paying more taxes actually got me more services I would be all for it. If I though paying 10 cents a gallon for gas got 7 to 9 cents a gallon worth of better roads I would be like "shut up and take our money".
I don't have a dog in this fight, I mostly drive my leaf and this year my wife is likely getting a plug in hybrid hyundai, I expect our monthly gasoline bill to drop from $20 to $40 dollars per month down to effectively $0 so it really doesn't effect me. Better roads would be nice but I know it isn't going to happen.