On empty: Watchdog covers demise of Mississippi gas tax proposal
Friday, April 22, 2016
By Andrew Collins 
It began with Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant’s state of the state speech at the Capitol in January. The governor wanted a middle-class tax cut, but there was a catch: a gas tax increase to offset the revenue loss.
“There is no reason we cannot balance an increase in fuel tax with an equal and sufficient tax reduction,” Bryant said. But it turns out he was wrong. Mississippi lawmakers would find plenty of reasons to avoid raising the gas tax.
Mississippi has a relatively low gas tax at 18.8 cents per gallon, which ranks 44th among states, but when combined with federal taxes it still adds up to a hefty sum – a tax of 36.4 cents on every gallon of gasoline.
It should come as little surprise, then, that public opposition to raising the tax remains high. A poll of 500 voters commissioned shortly after Bryant announced his push for a gas tax hike found that a decisive 86 percent of voters opposed increasing the gas tax. And in an implicit warning to lawmakers, it found 73 percent of respondents would be less likely to vote for their representative if they vote to increase the tax on gasoline.
Elaine Vechorik, vice president of the conservative organization Mississippi for Liberty, said the governor’s plan was a “shell game” and outlined a case against a gas tax increase.
“Mississippi’s Department of Transportation is rife with corruption, incompetency and waste. We need transparency for departmental contracts and there is a need to better prioritize projects,” she said. “Throwing more money at a broken department will translate into even larger tax increases in the future.”
Bryant’s call for increasing the gas tax was prompted by a report by the Mississippi Economic Council that found the state needed to “invest” $300 million every year in additional highway spending for state roads, plus $75 million annually for counties and municipalities. The state could increase its revenue by this sum, the report said, at a cost to Mississippians of just 37 cents per day.
Russ Latino, president of the Mississippi chapter for Americans for Prosperity, called on voters and taxpayers to have a little perspective. That 37 cents a day adds up to $135 a year for every person in the state, Latino said, so a family of four would be paying an extra $540 in taxes every year.
Furthermore, Latino pointed out, the MEC report failed to account for Mississippi’s highway deficiencies relative to other states. The Reason Foundation’s latest highway report ranked Mississippi eighth- among states with the highest performing road systems.
When it came time for lawmakers to introduce legislation in response to appeals by the governor and MEC, one by one their proposals stalled and died. The first to go was Senate Bill 2859. Introduced by state Sen. Willie Simmons (D-Cleveland), it would have instituted an 8 percent tax on gas at the wholesale level. To give the gas tax issue a fighting chance, the Senate’s Highways and Transportation Committee voted to substitute in the text of a placeholder bill. As Mississippi Watchdog reporter Steve Wilson explained, passing a placeholder bill highlighted the code sections of state law that would have to be changed to raise the gas tax, allowing the measure to stay alive and keeping the debate open later in the legislative session.
The next two gas tax bills to die were on the House side. House Bill 1681, by state Rep. Robert Johnson III (D-Natchez) would model Mississippi’s gas tax after North Carolina by attaching a percentage rate of taxation (in this case 6 percent) on gasoline at the wholesale level. It would have then reduced the set figure at the wholesale level to 15 cents per gallon. House Bill 1694, by state Rep. David Myers (D-McComb) would have simply raised the gas tax to 20 cents per gallon.
The problem with SB 2921 was that it was merely a placeholder – a vehicle for a gas tax