HB617 – Well, ONE Republican is making a big stink about raising the gas tax.

Well, I, Mike, and Steve are all over HB617,  the bill that will raise the gas tax 18 cents over the next four years – and to hammer home the point, we can thank Republicans for greasing the skids to push this through without nary a cross vote.  Well, one NH House Representative has spoken up about it – NH State Representative Bill O’Brien.  And he has sent some information our way as well.  In my post, it is obvious that Democrat David Campbell is all aflutter about his “hoodwinking” : “the gift that keeps on giving” – he is just ecstatic that he’s widened a revenue source for feeding Leviathan.  Notice that wording – spoken as a true Statist in that the orientation is from State Treasury aspect.

Sidenote: Never mentions that in order for the State to “receive”, it is taking, by force, monies that New Hampshirites would otherwise be able to spend on their families.  But, that’s how Progressives are – they are always convinced that they have a better purpose for your money than you do.  They delight in using other peoples money (but really believe it was theirs to begin with).

Well, Bill decides to take Campbell to task for playing magician with the facts of the bill to one set of folks but boasting about it to the Democrat Leadership (Campbell’s letter after the jump) and adds some figures (emphasis mine):

David,

There is an additional spreadsheet you have on the 83% hike in the gas tax, but up to now you have only given to the Democratic leadership of the Finance, Resources and Fish & Game committees. That spreadsheet, which was prepared by the Department of Safety, points out that this near doubling of the gas tax will apply to all gas sales, but that gas used for snowmobiles and boats is not placed in the Highway Trust Fund, but instead is deposited into other funds.

Your disclosure of this fact to those committee leaders is inconsistent, of course, with the documents you have forwarded today showing only money going to roads and is contrary to your public protestations that “every dollar” of the gas tax hike will be going to roads. Instead, and as you said in the late afternoon Friday, February 22, 2013 email to the leadership of those committees, “[w]hen fully phased in [the gas tax] will generate $658,000 annually in General Fund revenue, $1,251,000 for Fish & Game and $593,000 for DRED/Trails.” This “extra revenue” going to Fish & Game and DRED will not, of course, be used to repair red-listed bridges.

This is such an unexpected (and, heretofore, undisclosed) multi-million dollar windfall (taken, of course, from the wallets of our constituents, who are already paying 50 cents more a gallon for gas since the election), that you went on to advise the Democratic leaders who received your email that they “don’t spend it all in one place.” I imagine they must be joining you in your enthusiastic view of this tax increase, expressed again in the Friday email, as “the gift that keeps on giving.”

I am sure that all members would like to see the Department of Safety’s explanation of how, year after year, millions from any gas tax increase will not go to red-listed bridges. Would you share its spreadsheet with all members?

-Bill O’Brien

Inconsistent?  I believe that the proper terminology is “lying by omission” – leaving out major parts of the Truth (so, Campbell is trying to follow Saul Alinsky who preached the that there was no morals, only an end goal.  “By any means necessary” was a watch phrase of his; it seems that Campbell has decided to make it for his own?

Here is Campbell’s Letter that went out:

From: David B. Campbell [campbelldavidb@comcast.net]
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 10:23 AM
To: ~All Representatives
Subject: HB 617 – what it raises – where it goes

Honorable Colleagues:

Please find two attachments regarding HB 617 as amended by Public Works & Highways Committee, which is in this week’s Calendar recommended unanimously to the full House as Ought to Pass.

One attachment is a summary of the amended bill.  The other contains spreadsheets showing where the extra revenue goes, and importantly, how much each Town and City will receive over the next ten years in extra Municipal Block Grant Aid to help fix their roads and bridges.

I respectfully ask for your support of the bill and the Committee this Wednesday.

Please feel free to contact me (or members of the Committee) with any questions.

Best regards,

David

Rep. David B. Campbell
Chairman, Public Works & Highways
NH House of Representatives
Hills. Dist. 33 – Ward 6
10 East Dunstable Road
Nashua, New Hampshire 03060

And the spreadsheet: