NH Republicans - didn't they learn from last year (raising the gas tax) at ALL? - Granite Grok

NH Republicans – didn’t they learn from last year (raising the gas tax) at ALL?

gas pump oldWe went through this gas Tax stupidity last year – starting in the House:

Yup, that’s right.  The NH House’s Public Works and Highway Committee members decided that it was so durn important to fix roads and such, they couldn’t be bothered to really set a priority list and bump down others much less important (remember:  “Maggie the Marxist” – she choose diapers over students??  $2 million for adult diapers? great prioritization)  HB617 was just passed out of that Committee, 17-0, with nary a “limited government / less taxes” Republican throwing a single “Nay!”.  Not one Republican could say “er, is this really not a good thing to do right now with gas quickly heading towards $4 / gallon WITHOUT the State of NH helping it along??

And we were all over HB167: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and hereI even gave some advice to NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn on “messaging” and Consistency when she went after Maggie Hassan and not the Republicans who voted to raise the gas tax:

“I am saddened that any Republican voted to enlarge Government, to go along to get along, and not fight the good fight to find savings elsewhere and restructure Government priorities within the current budget to deal with these important matters.  It would have been better for issues and needs of lower importance to receive less monies so as to take care of these higher ones; after all, it is what we all do around the family kitchen table every single day.  Raising such a tax that affects so many citizens in a time of already high gas price only places a burden on them; Republicans should know and do better and I ask them to review the Platform so as to re-familiarize themselves what our word stands. After all, if we cannot stand by our own words, what do we stand for?

Well, THANK you, NH State Senator Rausch (Republican), for trying to finish what the House Democrats and their Jr. Partners in making Government more costly last year: 

The Senate Transportation Committee’s chairman wants to use a consumer-price-index formula to bump up the state’s gas tax to fix roads and bridges.

Under the formula, the state’s 18-cent gas tax would increase about 4.2 cents a gallon and produce about $30 million in new revenue for transportation projects. The formula would be reapplied every four years to adjust the gas tax to align with inflation.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jim Rausch, R-Derry, said the increase would be set in February when the 2013 consumer index is established, but believes it will be slightly more than 4 cents.

Sorry, but this is STILL wrong on several levels:

  1. Before adding the next of the “death by a thousand taxes cuts, why didn’t you submit legislation to stop the “internal thievery” from the Highway Fund FIRST?
  2. Tying it to inflation: ah!  Yet another “easy” way to not do the jobs we elected you to do – MAKE those hard decisions instead of putting them on “auto-pilot”.  Yeah, that’s it – never have to vote on that tax EVER AGAIN!  It’ll be just like the “temporary” telephone tax – that was levied during the Spanish-American war and just sunsetted a couple of years ago.
  3. It also keeps you from making the hard decisions on all of those “thieving” departments and agencies sucking away those dollars you claim to be so necessary to fix.  Again, another “behind the curtain” move, Senator?
  4. And most of all, it allows you to skip out from having to REALLY review what the State should NOT be doing in order to fund these “high priority” items.  And not vote on them, again?

So, let’s also add to this that it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL (according to the NH Constitution) to do as Steve pointed out last time:

Part II, Article 6-a, states that any money raised through gas taxes (gas road tolls), must be used exclusively for public highways and “no part of such revenues shall, by transfer or funds or otherwise, be diverted to any other purpose whatsoever.”

[Art.] 6-a. [Use of Certain Revenues Restricted to Highways.] All revenue in excess of the necessary cost of collection and administration accruing to the state from registration fees, operators’ licenses, gasoline road tolls or any other special charges or taxes with respect to the operation of motor vehicles or the sale or consumption of motor vehicle fuels shall be appropriated and used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of public highways within this state, including the supervision of traffic thereon and payment of the interest and principal of obligations incurred for said purposes; and no part of such revenues shall, by transfer of funds or otherwise, be diverted to any other purpose whatsoever.

So HB 617 is unconstitutional.

So, why does it take a small Band of Boisterous Bloggers to point this out?  Do any moderate Republicans actually read it and  do Republicans actually cherish the NH Constitution – or like the majority of Democrats – a pesky document that is better relegated simply to capture dust?  Ditto for the NH GOP Platform – which has this to say about it:

We believe that the New Hampshire and United States Constitutions were written by our forefathers to limit our government, not our freedom.

We believe that individual liberty is guaranteed under the Constitutions of the United States and New Hampshire, that the liberty of the people must be protected above the power of the government, and that it is only through an adherence to our founding documents that we will continue to grow as a free, Constitutional Republic.

Further items:

We believe in free people, free markets and free enterprise. We believe that happiness and success are the result of individual effort, hard work and dedication to a purpose. We believe that economies flourish when individuals and business owners retain as much of their hard earned income as possible, to spend and invest as they see fit.

We believe that low taxes are the result of low spending; that government has a moral obligation to the people to be as cost effective as possible, to always limit spending and growth of government, and to cut spending and cost of government at every possible turn.

So, see item #4 again and ask “Did Senator Rausch do that?  Will the Republicans do that?” in light that they allow an unconstitutional action to continue, and with the proposed gas tax raise, make it worse?  And ignore the Platform that admonishes exactly against this action?

I’ve gone long (heh, what else is new?) – here was my closing from the “advice TO NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn” – it still holds true:

Until we out here start to see Republicans maintaining self-discipline, honoring the ideals enumerated in the Platform, and moving from merely mouthing the words to an attitude and outlook of actually applying them in each and every situation, it seems that we will continue to earn this monniker each and every day: The Stupid Party.  And you will continue to lose the grassroots energies and efforts that are so badly needed.

Another year gone…what has been learned?  Obviously, not much.

And once again, we see the chasm between the grassroots and the Leaders that are supposed to represent them.

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