Evening star., 1937-04-12


\ J quired to pay a local gasoline
tax of cents gallon
double the present rate-under H. r.
6037, one of the tax measures now
before the House District Committee
The boost is proposed as an amend
ment to the District motor fuel tax
act of 1924.
A second purpose of this bill is to
require the licensing of all District
gasoline importers as means of as
suring prompt payment to the District
of the gas taxes they collect from
motorists. It provides for revoca-
ton of such licenses in cases OF de-
linquency. The taxes must be paid
over within a month after their col
lection.
Each motorist buying gas in the
District would have to pay 100 per
cent more in gas tax unless he re-
duced the use of his vehicle. Each
gasoline importer would pay S. q
year for a license to engage in the
motor fuel business.
Diversion Issue Raised.
Possibly the most controversial
questions in connection with the pro-
posed increase in the gasoline tax
relate to diversion of gasoline tax rev.
enueS to uses not connected with
highway improvement and mainte-
nance. together with the fact that for
several years past-and including the
current fiscal year-there has been a
surplus in the gasoline tax fund over
expenditures. 1t has been argued in
the past that no increase in the gaso-
line tax is justified until the expen-
dltures OF the gas tax revenues are
authorized, and conditions this year
suggest the same argument.
The 1924 gas tax act specifies that
the revenue from the special motor
vehicle fuel tax shall be paid into the
Treasury of the United States entirely
to the credit of the District of Colum-
bla and shall be available for appro-
priation by the Congress exclusively
for road and street Improvements and
repair" The amendments increasing
the tax do not change this limitation.
Diversion is found in the 1888 Dis
trict appropriation bill Therein are
plans to take S369,0O0 out of the
special taxes coming from motor We
hlcle owners to pay the costs of serv-
ices in the past supported by taxes
collected from the public as a whole.
AS the House passed the 1899 budget
the meaning of road and street i'm
provements and repair" was broadened
to include about half the cost of the
Traffic Department, the whole cost of
sidewalks and alleys and the whole
cost of trees and parkings.
Surplus Would Be Created.
Responsibility for snow removal
work was also shifted to the Highway
Department. These changes were
achieved by mere transfers of ap-
preparation charges, not by amend
ment of the gas tax act. If the gas
tax boost and the pending appropria-
ton bill both are adopted by Congress
there will be a surplus in the gas tax
fund at the end of the next fiscal
year of some S2,000,000. All the ad-
dltlonal gas tax collections, in other
words, would create a surplus. or
unspent balance.
Estimated conSerVatively, the yield
from Accent gasoline tax would
be $4,400.000 next year. This total
does not amount to twice the present
revenue from the 2-cent rate. Experts
say they must allow for decline in
the yield as the rate is boosted
There will be balance of S463, 500
in the gas tax fund at the end of the
current fiscal year, according to avail
able reports. The existing 2-cent rate
is estimated to bring in S2,45O, 900 next
year, in addition to 100000 in benefit
assessments. Thus, the District ex-
poets it will have available in the next
fiscal year sum of $3,113,500 The
House has approved as appropriation
charges against this sum a program
costing S3,012 ,420, which would leave
about 100000 unspent. Adoption of
4 2-cent boost in the rate would add
about 100000 to the surplus, unless
changes were made in the appro-
0riationS.
Street Program Reduced.
Study of the District bill indicates
deliberate move to spread the uses
If the special gas tax fund. The bill
'educed the street and bridge program
oy S475,0OO, dropping items to be
oaid from gas funds. It added two
lew items, totaling $4,000, leaving
he net reduction at $4O5,OOO.
Then there were added to the
charges against the gas tax fund
TENS amounting to S369,6O0, these
'eing formerly charges against gen.
'ral revenues collected from all Dis
rict taxpayers. Since the new items
otaled less than those dropped, the
diversion program would not have
,een endangered by any possible
allure of adoption of the proposed
BOOST in the gas tax.
An item of $325,000 for starting
of the new Pennsylvania
Avenue Bridge was cut from the street
and bridge program. Items for curb
and gutter work, resurfacing and
were reduced. Items
shifted to the gas tax fund were:
Sidewalks and alleys, $15O,00O; trees
and parkings, S126,0o0, an6 $4,000
for traffic lights, signs and street
markings. The bill as reported to the
House also urged the transfer OF
Traffic Department salaries and the
cost of automobile tags to the gasoline
tax fund, but the House rejected those
changes.
Motorists Fear Further Abuse.
Civic groups and organized motor
lists are chiefly protesting the increased
gas tax and the diversion, declaring
that creation of a surplus will merely
provide opportunity to dip deeper into
the special taxes taken from motor
lists to pay Government costs for
which they, as a single class, are not
History shows that the use Of the
gas tax fund here has gradually been
broadened, though up to the present
all items have borne a distinct rela-