Reader comments
UDOT chief floats gas-tax change

Them are fightin' words! Revenue is down because of gas prices? Unfreaking believable! What about when spring comes and gas sky rockets again? Will these legislative clowns say we have too much revenue we need to decrease gas tax? I dont know about you folks, but I am getting mad as heck at our leaders! I, Joe citizen, follow a strict budget and make ends meet. I demand our "smart" leaders to do the same! Seriously, how much more do citizens have to suffer before banding together and hunting down politicians?

UP THE TAX AND THEN BLAME THE DEMOCRATES...THATS GREAT WAY TO GET IT DONE.....SINCE THEY ARE TAKING OVER NEXT YEAR.....

This is one of the most regressive tax ideas that I have ever seen. (What�s next; bring back the sales tax on food?) Jon Jon�s plan will nearly double the amount of taxes that we pay at the pump when gas prices increase to $3.50 and give us a tax break when prices are below $2.00. Does this make sense to anyone? All this will do is increase demand when gas is cheap. This, in turn, will drive up the price and increase the taxes that we all pay. It will also increase the price of food when our budgets are already stretched to pay the new tax at the pump, not to mention that it is logistically infeasible given the way that the gas tax is currently recovered. (When it leaves the refinery (Federal) or when the trucker delivers it (State).) The honeymoon is over. Whatever political capital Huntsman thinks that he earned in the election has been spent on his poor, and I mean POOR, policy initiatives.

Roads are heinously expensive, because to build them often requires land acquisition. There is no rational way to meet the State's transportation needs within the budgets we have now.

As much as it pains me to say this, we don't pay enough to build new roads and keep existing roads maintained. A percentage tax will help to provide better infrastructure for Utah citizens.

Is it going to cost me more? You bet. But I'm happy to pay, because it benefits everyone.

This is the same guy that raised bus and train fares calling it a "Gas Surcharge" because gas prices were so high and have we seen the "Gas Surcharge" revoked with gas prices the lowest in 5 years?

NO SALE! But nice try! Despite folks being laid off right and left, home prices and real wages dropping like lead, state and local govts. seem to want to be able to "guarantee" themselves a revenue stream! I wonder if they could cut the wages of EVERYONE in state and local govt. who make over 100k by 10% and if THAT has ever been considered! There are an awful lot of high-priced bean counters in state and local govt. Why no effort to reign in any of those over-the-top salaries? The more you watch what state and local govts. do to cope with the downturn in the economy, the more they look like bankers and auto execs.!

I've got a much cheaper solution: carpool. We'd need a lot less roads if everyone carpooled to work (or at least everyone carpooled for whom it is practical). When we rely on government, we're going to pay a lot of taxes. Let's see if we can be self-reliant instead.

This isn't the same guy, that was UTA, totally separate group of people.

One question I have on making it a percentage at the pump, since 99% or more of the places require you to prepay how do you add sales tax at the pump, you don't know the total dollar amount until after you pump the fuel. So do the vendors have to trust you will go in and pay the additional sales tax?

Almost everyone in my family has lost their job within the last 3 months. My husband just lost his job last Monday. With the gas prices falling, I'm not as stressed out about how I'm going to feed my family. But now they want to raise the taxes on gas? Some people may not feel the difference if they raise gas taxes, but my family sure will!

just have the truckers avoiding the weigh stations on a regular basis throughout the state ..pay up..as some of them are crazy drivers fresh out of cdl schools...and what happens when the prices go up again? Duh ...real vision there!

People have got to get rid of the idea that Republican equates to "good", Democrat equates to "bad". Especially in state politics. It amazed me after the political debacles and crooked politics over the past 4 years Utahn's voted for more of the same. It is not a Democrat vs Republican issue. One political part given control will not serve the peoples best interests. But, we have 2 more years of this until maybe the voters will get tired and final send a message to the Utah Republican Party.

Finally, to clarify one thing, I am no means a Democrat, I despise most of what the party stands for, however, I see no difference in the Republican party in Utah.

When the economy is in recession, you should never pull out the "tax hike" card. It's bad mojo.

Lets face it, the state had record budgets recently and what did they do? They threw most of it at education and other projects instead of considering possible leaner years in the future or cutting taxes significantly more than they did. I, for one, would prefer to see all the "government growth" that occurred under Hunstman term 1 to be eliminated first before they're any talk about anything else.

Absolutely no tax hikes until the government is cut down to bare bones. That just pours on the pain.

It seems to me that UDOT was unprepared for this economic slowdown. They assumed that with gas prices being so high they could plan a lot of huge projects not realizing that if gas came back down, they'd no longer have the money needed and then try to fix it by raising taxes. I remember someone from UDOT once blaming Utah commuters for cutting back on driving when gas was over $4, because it cut back on their budget. Just like banks and auto makers who got into their own messes, UDOT is now going to seek help from the government stimulus packages. Way to go guys. High-fives all around for being not so smart!

What if John Njord lost his job, with bills stacking up, with the high cost of food prices going up due to the high fuel cost over the last several years, along with power and gas companies pushing up their prices all the time and now with the country in a recession do you really think that he would like to see a increase in the fuel sales tax to fix Utah roads now?

Why do have to spend billions of dollars making all of our overpasses look like the Taj Mahal? Why do they rip Weber Canyon up every other year and completely redo a brand new road? Stop wasting our money and then you wouldn't need more of it.

Congestion pricing is a better solution than raising gas taxes or sales taxes (legislature is more likely to raise sales taxes than gas taxes and earmark them for transportation).

The largest single cost in the state transportation budget is expanding existing roads and building new roads to handle rush hour traffic. Maintenance costs are much lower than construction costs. Since our transportation budget is driven largely by rush hour demands, congestion pricing is a more focused approach than raising sales or gas taxes.

Lets have a revote and get all those clowns up on the hill that want to raise our taxes out of office.

Your name says it. Do you realize that you've always been paying tax on your fuel purchase? It's built in the price already. So when you pre-pay, that amount includes the tax. No need to trust people to come in and pay the tax afterwards.

How about we cut the fat off of the Utah government and all governments every where. Raising taxes is a terrible idea. Look at the country of Georgia, they lowered their tax rate to a flax tax of 12 and half percent and their economy boomed. Entitlement programs and other wasteful progams are draining governmments everywhere. It's time to be responsible and govern within our means. What a concept!!!!!!!!!!

The tax is 24.5 cents a gallon so why does it need to change. It is by the gallon not the cost of the gas. So if I pay $1.99 a gallon 24.5 cent goes to the state if I pay $2.99 a gallon the state gets the same 24.5. So is it because people are not buying as much gas that you want to up the tax. Let wait and see what will happen. I agree they will never lower the tax on gas.