Evening star., 1924-03-26
Gas Tax Equities and Inequities


unite their voices in common con
fession, saying: I'VE have intended
10 do the things we ought not to have
done. and we have intended to leave
undone the things we ought to have
done We have done the things we
did not intend and have left undone
tho things we intended TO do, and
there is no health in US"
Both houses intended to continue
The personal tax on automobiles, re
Sardless of what happened to the gas
tax. Both houses voted TO impose the
a;as tax and to eliminate the personal
tax.
1t is doubtless too much to expect
that either house will view this self
haff1ing of the intent TO pile the gas
TAX on top of the personal tax as a
providential Intervention to prevent
them from going wrong and will
abandon the attempt
But Washington does urge with all
its might that the Conferees on this
bill take the two abortive measures
and merge them into something sound
and approximately equitable or kill
them outright.
Since Congress has clearly indi
Gated that it does not intend to elm.
mate the personal tax on automobiles
by substituting any other form of tax
for 1t, and that a gas tax. if imposed
must be in addition to the personal
tax, Washington has with equal clear.
ness demonstrated that if it were a
self-taxing community it would have
no gas tax at all, viewing the new tax
hurtful and creating a dangerous
precedent.
But if a gas tax is to be arbitrarily
imposed, what should its terms be?
What rate, for instance, should be
exacted?
Until 1921 the uniform rate in mo.
tor fuels tax laws was I cent a gal.
lon. On January 1, 1924, twenty-four
states had tax of cents a gallon
ar more, and twentyfour states had
gas tax of l cent or less, or no such
tax at all. In which Of these halves
into which the states are divided does
the District naturally fall?
The primary purpose of the gas
tax is to get from motorists, largely
city folk, the money to pay for more
and better country roads. The states
with large mileage Of country roads,
including those with a considerable
percentage of unimproved roads and
those which have set high standard
If road development requiring large
expenditures for maintenance, are
naturally fix the higher tax rate of
cents a gallon or more.
James w. Martin Of the University
# Chicago, in an article in the Bulle-
tin Of the National Tax Association
for December, 1923, says on this
point: In view of the large percent
age Of automobiles and trucks owned
in cities, and the fact that in most
states the cities receive no direct bene-
fit from the gasoline tax, it is sur
prising that little objection to the tax
has been raised on the ground that
the tax would take revenue from the
city to construct country roads, while
The city streets, on which a very large
percentage, probably more than half
Of the cars are used, must be financed
by some other means. A serious in
justice might be done in this way,
but strangely enough, very little cap
ital of this has been made by the
opponents of the tax"
If the District is to be viewed as
a state and to have arbitrarily i'm
posed upon it against it's will this
state tax, the alien taxing body should
at least analyze the reasons for the
creation and imposition of this new,
or substitute, tax in the states and
graduate the rate, of tax exacted here
in proportion to the existence in the
District of the conditions which Justify
the higher rate.
If this analysis be made, and the
leaders of our legislature will conde-
scend for a few minutes to give
earnest, concentrated thought to this
problem, the District will be classed
in that half of the states which either
do not impose upon themselves this
tax at all or which tax themselves
L cent q gallon as a maximum.
y = g =
For the District has no large mile
age or country roads to be improved
q maintained at high standard by
a million dollars a year new tax to
he exacted from motorists. Our streets
and roads have been neglected in war
lime, and need a single large expendi-
ture to bring them up to date in paw
ing and lighting. Part of our accumu-
lated tax surplus in the Treasury was
collected to maintain and improve our
streets, and since our streets were
neglected and this money was unused
in the stress of war it should be ap-
piled now to the purposes for which
II was collected, and in accordance
with the terms Of proporuonate con-
tribution by the nation under which
it was exacted. But if there were no
surplus, no representative legislature
would exact from its constituents a.
new million dollar tax for country
roads every year in perpetuity, when
an q the accumulated unmet needs in