Better Start Riding A Bicycle

"Who wants a gas tax?" Shumlin said. "I don't want a damn gas tax."

    When they start talking like that, hold on to your wallet.  Remember how last year there was "no more taxing capacity" in Vermont?  Except, that is, for the tax on fuel oil that was proposed as a way of making it easier to pay your fuel oil bill.  It didn't pass but not for lack of effort on Senator Peter Shumlin's part.   

This year the "crisis" that requires new taxation is the decaying of the state's infrastructure.  The collapse of that bridge in Minnesota will be cited as evidence that the crisis exists.  We will be treated to all kinds of alarms about the number of bridges that are "at risk" and how we can't afford to ...

"...ignore the problem and let our children pay the bills later on."

And, of course, anyone who wonders if maybe we don't need to find the funds to pay for what we truly need in the way of infrastructure repair and upgrade out of existing revenues will be accused of (drum roll, please) ...

"... playing politics with this issue when we all really need to come together to tackle the problem."

    If, indeed, there is a pressing need for work on the state's infrastructure (and notice how effortlessly politicians can gin up a "crisis" that requires urgent action and more taxes) then perhaps the people in Montpelier need to figure a way to devote some of the money they already collect from Vermonters who are taxed to the max ("no further capacity," remember) to solving the problem.
    Why in Hell, one wonders, can't one of the most robustly taxed states in the nation afford to keep its roads and bridges in good repair? 
    The state "needs" many things.  What it needs, above all, is a sound, pro-growth approach to the state's economy and the sense to refrain from sticking its hands ever deeper into the pockets of taxpayers who are more and more inclined to hit the road -- potholes or not -- for places where they are allowed to keep enough of what they earn to buy a house.