A “double tax on driving” in CT?

July 25, 2016

(Attached below is an excerpt from Journal Inquirer Managing Editor Chris Powell’s latest column about the Mileage Tax. I continue to strongly oppose this potential “double tax on driving” in Connecticut. Please continue to contact me with your thoughts at [email protected] .)

(By Chris Powell)

A double tax on driving: At last Governor Malloy has admitted why the state Transportation Department is joining other states in a study of taxing motorists by the miles they drive. It’s because state government really might switch to such a tax regime.

This is only partly the usual tax hunger of Democratic administrations. Additionally, the governor notes, motor vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient and the state’s fuel taxes are producing less revenue. In 20 years, the governor says, revenue from fuel taxes may fall by half — and that is the main revenue source for the state’s transportation system, which is in serious need of improvement.

But anyone can see the danger here.

Fuel taxes are already mileage taxes, and a new mileage tax won’t just substitute for fuel taxes, won’t be revenue-neutral.
Instead it will become a tax surcharge, with motorists paying both taxes and state government collecting far more money, even as University of Connecticut President Susan Herbst’s salary goes up to a million dollars per year.