The Gas Tax: A Well-Thought-Out Alternative? Show Me!

Lots of Democrats are coming out with alternative proposals for squeezing money out of New Jersey citizens, their friends and families, the businesses on which they depend, and their business partners.

For instance, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Democrat, proposes to raise the gas tax over three years to 28.5 cents a gallon.

All this is in play because it's seen as better than Governor Corzine's plan to double our tolls, and then double them again, and then double them again. (A six-pack of decent beer, under similar inflationary conditions, would cost $48.)

And that's a good thing -- as far as it goes. Of course, I'd prefer that they learn how to cut spending rather than invent new ways to extract more money from us.

But leave that aside for a moment, and somebody who is advocating a has tax increase please tell me: has anyone analyzed how much business our has stations would lose if people from New York and Pennsylvania stop getting their gas at New Jersey pumps? I have yet to see a single mention of the effect that this tax will have on gas stations near state borders. Has anyone else?

If you can't make money on volume, you go back to charging higher prices. I'll bet you a gallon of gas (at today's prices) that if this plan is enacted, the price of gas at pumps near the border will rise by more than a nickel over the gas tax. Straightforward. Obvious, even. But probably not even looked at by our public servants.

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